How Trump Became a Political Force, and Other Stories You Should Read Today
The Daily 5 is Sharp’s essential reading list for what’s happening in the world today. Make sure to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Sharp Insider newsletter to stay up to date.
1. How Trump did it.
As first-in-the-nation Iowa gets set to caucus today, Politico breaks down exactly how Donald Trump became such a political force. It wasn’t improvised — as it would certainly seem — but rather carefully planned more than two years in advance.
“He said, ‘I’m going to walk away with it and win it outright,’” a long-time New York political consultant told Politico. “Trump told us, ‘I’m going to get in and all the polls are going to go crazy. I’m going to suck all the oxygen out of the room. I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me.’”
+1: Trump’s chances for nomination now stand at 50 per cent.
+1: From Digg, what exactly is happening in Iowa tonight?
2. The first witness in the Jian Ghomeshi trial took the stand.
And the details are pretty brutal. “It felt almost like a rage,” the complainant, whose name is subject to a publication ban, testified.
3. What happens when Walmart leaves town?
“Think of Walmart’s closure here and elsewhere, then, less as a cause of ruin than as a symptom. ‘Walmart’s pulling out of places that are doing poorly,’ Hicks said. ‘Its decision to leave doesn’t really precipitate bad times as much as it does accelerate bad times.’ Meanwhile, some of the people who relied on the Supercenter for food, pharmacy, and check-cashing already have a contingency plan. “I’ll probably go to another Walmart,” Clay said.”
The New Yorker on the flight of Walmart.
4. Watching the watchers.
After Facebook released a huge trove of data on its users’ interests last week, The Verge has crunched the numbers for us, posting the definitive list of what everyone likes on the social network.
5. Going global.
The Zika virus has now been declared a global health emergency.
