RUSH: Here’s Dan in Pittsburgh.  Dan, great to have you! You’re first up on Open Line Friday.  That means you’ve got to carry the weight.  The first caller always sets the tone.  It’s a big responsibility. 

CALLER:  Well, thank you, Rush.  It’s an honor to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Mega belated Father’s Day dittos from millions of Rush Babies across the fruited plain.

RUSH:  Thank you very much.  I’m honored.  I appreciate that.

CALLER:  All right, Rush. Here’s my deal.  I think Trump is scuttling his campaign at the behest of the Clintons.  He’s been close to Clintons throughout his entire career.  He’s donated a lot of money to their campaigns and foundation.  His kids donated money to both the Clintons’ campaigns and foundations.  So a lot of the things we see, to me, it’s like a cat-and-mouse game.  Anytime he gets ahead in the polls, he does something to fall behind in the polls.  Anytime Hillary has a scandal that heats up, he does something to take the heat off of her.  If you look throughout their past, the —

RUSH:  You’re making a dual-edged point: “Is Trump scuttling the campaign?” That’s a separate point.  And then you say he’s doing it at the behest of the Clintons.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Meaning you think there’s a deal between Trump and the Clintons?

CALLER:  Yes, and I can get to that later but I’ll give you more examples why I think they’re tied together at the hip.  You look back in their pasts; we know that the theory that Obama was born in Kenya came from Clinton opposition research.  So who was the loudest person in the world blabbering about that?  It was Donald Trump, and I believe that that was at the behest of the Clintons.  If you look at Donald Trump’s wedding, he invited the Clintons to his wedding.  You don’t invite people to your wedding as a political favor.  You invite people that are nearest and dearest to you.

RUSH:  Uhhh, not in that world you don’t.

CALLER:  Well, in my opinion, that’s what’s going on.  There are just too many things that are happening that are coincidence.  Now if want to you look into what the political payoff is for Trump, I can go into that.  It’s all speculation.  It’s all theory.  But to me, it’s obvious that Trump is intentionally sabotaging his campaign. It was never a legit campaign from the get-go.

RUSH: Well, by the way, it’s not a new theory.  There were people who suspected this would be the case. Some people on the conspiracy side of things, thought this was the case even two, three weeks into it after Trump had announced. There were people warning, sounding warning bells, saying, “Wait a minute. This doesn’t jibe. Trump’s too close to the Clintons.”

CALLER: Yeah! Yeah! I thought that from day one.

RUSH: Yeah, you believed it since day one. But why would Trump– ?

CALLER: And, Rush, you know —

RUSH:  Why would Trump want to humiliate himself this way?  If you want Hillary to lose, if you want to sabotage your own campaign, you can do it without making yourself look like… How do you live this down?  What could the Clintons possibly do for him to make this worth that.

CALLER:  Well, I have two theories on that.  One is I believe Trump has gotten access to a building in DC and Trump has never been historically a developer in DC.

RUSH: (groans)

CALLER: He’s going to be doing a restoration.  Trump has historically not done restoration. He’s done new construction.  Also, I think there’s a prime real estate opportunity down in Cuba where Andrew Cuomo went.  I’m not sure why Cuomo is down there.

RUSH: (laughing) Sheez!

CALLLER: But I think, you know, there’s a possibility that Trump gets a prime real estate deal down in Cuba.

RUSH:  Was this part of the screening process?  Did you get this…?

CALLER: Rush —

RUSH: All right.  Look, none of… Trump doesn’t have to enter the presidential sweepstakes.  He doesn’t have to do what it takes to win. Don’t forget, he won the primary.  He beat 16 people — or 15. I forget the number.  So he had to do all of that before even being in the position of sabotaging a presidential campaign, all for the privilege of getting a permit to build a building in Washington and in Cuba? (interruption)  Now… (interruption) Now… (groans) Please. Yes, he did get the Old Post Office Building. 

If there’s any truth to this, it’s not… This doesn’t pass any kind of a smell test.  You can sabotage your campaign without doing it in a way that writes a legacy for the rest of your life that nobody would want.  I know this all feeds off of the belief in many circles that the Clintons are literally devils incarnate, that they have the word on everybody.  They can destroy anybody they want.  They know everything about anybody.  And they can control incomes, outcomes. They can control outcome; they can control anything they want at any time. 

They’re all-powerful.  Hillary even lost in 2008 to Obama on purpose just to set this year up, to make it looks like the Clintons don’t have the control that they’ve got.  I mean, you’ve got to… (laughing) If Trump is sabotaging his campaign — and I’m just putting an “if” in front of this, since it’s been theorized here — it’s not because he’s got to deal with the Clintons.  I know a lot of people believe this, by the way.  There are a lot of people. I’ve read it!  I’m a voluminous reader.  

I’ve read all these theories, and it dates back to Trump inviting the Clintons to his wedding to Melania, and Trump’s donation to Democrats being in New York.  You’ve heard all of that.  And one of the early theories I read was that there’s a deal between the Clintons and Trump to destroy the Republican Party, and that this is how you do it.  I’ve never seen what the payoff to Trump is for doing this.  But, remember, for all of these theories like this, there’s still something that has to happen before any of it can actually happen. 

And that is Trump has to win the primaries.  Trump has to beat 15 Republicans.  He’s got to beat Jeb Bush and $115 million.  I know what you’re going to say: “Well, Rush, if you go back and examine the primaries, where were the media?  The media loved Trump! The media was promoting Trump.  The media ate Trump up! No matter what he’s doing to journalists, no matter how mean he’s being, no matter how boorish and all that, the media… They cover his appearances!

“The media gave Trump the nomination, and now they’re turning on him just in time for Clintons.” I know some of this stuff lends itself to conspiracy theories and some of it is given life because… You talk to Trump people now and some of them are concerned it doesn’t look like he’s trying.  If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it twice: “Where is the Trump of the primaries?  Where is this confident braggadocio? Take no prisoners, attacking the media, attacking opponents — attacking, never on defense! Where is that guy?” 

Of course, the answer is, “The primaries are not the general.”