Things that would’ve killed a normal campaign

Campaign, 2016


$160M spent on negative ads, $17M on positive ads


Things Trump survived that would've killed any other campaign (comparison point - Howard Dean withdrew after saying "hee-aawww!!" excitedly):


- Said Mexicans are sending their rapists across border
- referred to Megan Kelly's menstrual bleeding
- Assured voters about his penis size (we didn't request this assurance)
- Said John McCain is not a war hero because he was captured
- implied an opponent's father might be part of JFK assassination
- said he could pull out a gun on 5th Avenue, shoot someone, and still be popular
- the Access Hollywood video referring to pussy grabbing and and "mov[ing] on her like a bitch"
- Multiple allegations of sexual assault
- Mocked a disabled reporter
- Threatened to ban all Muslim immigrants
- Offered to pay legal fees for supporters to beat up protesters
- referred to beating up protesters himself (verify)
- Threatened to kill families of terrorist suspects
- Said women who have abortions should suffer some kind of punishment
- admitted paying no taxes while not providing tax returns as part of election process
- said he would imprison his campaign opponent
- asked a foreign enemy nation to hack opponent's emails
- said a judge can't be objective in a case involving a Trump policy position because he's from Mexico (perhaps "Mexico" is the name of the Indiana town where he was born)
- tweeted unflattering photo of opponent's wife compared to photo of his own wife (former model)
- accused opponents of being ugly and overweight
- proved he was showing restraint by not criticizing an opponent's looks ("and believe me, there's plenty of material there")
- tweeted that Bush has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife
- ejected Jorge Ramos from Iowa press conference telling him to sit down and go back to Univision
- said he "bought" Hillary Clinton with campaign contributions in the past
-  said a female attorney was "disgusting" for breastfeeding 
- promoted "traditional marriage" while being married multiple times (similar to many others)
- said people wouldn't be able to look at Carlene Fiorina's face for a whole presidency
- said he saw a video of thousands of muslims celebrating 9-11 in New Jersey


False Promises:
- said Mexico would pay for border wall, without speaking with Mexico or providing a plan for how this would happen


People who suffered consequences for Trump affiliations while Trump remained unscathed:
- Billy Bush


Post-election list:
- Tweeted about a news personality's facelift bleeding (Mika B from Morning Joe)