Trump's Dismissed Longtime Adviser Speaks Out
Over on NRO, I spoke with Roger Stone, Trump's most trusted political adviser . . . until this weekend. Did you know Roy Cohn -- chief counsel to Joe McCarthy -- was Trump's lawyer for a while? Did you know Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump, was a major GOP donor during his life, supporting Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan? Did you know that Donald Trump let the Reagan campaign in 1979 use his plane to fly petitions to Albany in order to file on time to get Reagan's name on the ballot? Unsurprisingly, other campaigns reached out to him upon news of his departure . . . but Stone says he's not interested. Stone claims three presidential campaigns — he won't identify them, saying only "you can figure it out, the non-establishment campaigns" — have reached out to him since he left Trump's operation, he says he's not willing to work for a candidate other than Trump this cycle, and dismisses the "career politicians" dominating the field. His personal admiration for Trump remains undamaged despite his decision to leave the campaign. "I attended both of his parents' funerals, two of his three weddings; his sister Mary Ann Trump Barry is someone who's a friend and someone I admire very much, a very accomplished federal judge," he says. "I have nothing bad to say about Donald Trump. I've wanted him to be president since 1988. I just want to see him back on track." Meanwhile, it appears all is well between Trump and Fox News again: The billionaire presidential candidate returned to Fox News Tuesday morning with a policy-centered interview on Fox & Friends that steered clear of his weekend-long fight with the network over tough questions he received during last week's presidential debate . . . His return to the network Tuesday morning made no mention of his spat with [Megyn] Kelly, other than host Steve Doocy's greeting, in which he welcomed Trump and said "glad we're friends again." "We are friends, Steve. We've always been friends," Trump said. Doocy apparently agreed. He asked Trump about his continued strong polling numbers and then pressed the businessman for details on tax policy and combating the so-called Islamic State militant group. Trump gave few specifics. On taxes he said he would "start off by simplifying our current system. Put H & R Block out of business . . . make it nice and easy for people to understand and reduce taxes." Doocy asked whether Trump would support sending troops into combat to fight ISIS, a question Trump did not directly answer. "I was not a fan of going to Iraq" before the war, he said. But "now that we are there and you have these people chopping off Christians' heads . . . I say cut them off where they are getting their wealth: Cut them off at the oil. "We go in, we knock the hell out of them, we take the oil, we thereby take their wealth," he said. Trump continued to refuse to promise he will not run as an independent, despite reports that his advisors have said he is willing to give up that idea. "We're going to keep the door open, we are going to see what happens," Trump said. "I do want to keep that door open in case I don't get treated fairly. Is Rick Perry's Campaign Experiencing Financial Woes? How often do you see a candidate with a super PAC that raised $15 million not paying staffers for a while? Former Texas governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign is no longer paying its staff because fundraising has dried up, while his cash-flush allied super PAC is preparing to expand its political operation to compensate for the campaign's shortcomings, campaign and super PAC officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday. Perry, who has struggled to gain traction in his second presidential run, has stopped paying his staff at the national headquarters in Austin as well as in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to a Republican familiar with the Perry campaign who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Perry campaign manager Jeff Miller told staff last Friday, the day after the first Republican presidential debate, that they would no longer be paid and are free to look for other jobs -- and, so far at least, most aides have stuck with Perry -- according to this Republican. It's August. Perry's campaign officially launched June 4, but he hired staffers and policy experts back in April, and was hiring Iowa staff back in February. Speaking of Money Troubles . . . Remember Senator Rand Paul's effort to run for reelection to the Senate and the presidency simultaneously? The plan was to switch from a primary to a caucus, to avoid running afoul of a Kentucky law not allowing a candidate to appear twice on a ballot. That's hitting a snag: Paul has been furiously lobbying Kentucky Republican leaders ahead of an Aug. 22 decision to rewrite party rules so he can run for president and reelection to his Senate seat simultaneously, a hedge to hold onto power should his Oval Office aspirations falter. Running for the two offices at once creates tricky legal hurdles that are only surmountable with the assent of the Kentucky Republican Party's leadership and central committee. Though that approval once seemed assured, several members of the party executive committee told POLITICO they're seeing increasing trepidation, in part because of Paul's perceived fade from contention but also because he hasn't yet fulfilled promises to cover the cost of any changes. "I think it's fair to say that among members of this committee that they're always aware of the financial impact of anything new on the organization that they serve," said state GOP chairman Steve Robertson. "I think it's pretty fair to say that members of the committee think this thing could be anywhere from $400,000 to $600,000. That's obviously something that weighs appropriately on the minds of the folks on the committee." Others were blunter. "There should be no direct cost to the party," said Scott Lasley, a state executive committee member who chaired the party committee that drafted the plan Paul favors. "If the money is not there … then I think all bets are off." Looks like Rand Paul and/or the Kentucky state GOP need a big infusion of cash quickly to make that plan work. ADDENDA: Watch for this to become the next cause célèbre: Two reporters who were arrested while covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo., last August, were charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer, their outlets said on Monday. The reporters, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post, were arrested at a McDonald's restaurant while covering nightly demonstrations that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. | 
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