Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Immigration activists are planning a massive show of support Monday for President Obama’s effort to defer the deportation of more than 4 million undocumented workers as the Supreme Court takes up a challenge to the program, including rallies in 20 cities across the country as well as a live concert in front of the court by La Santa Cecilia.

Oral arguments on the challenge to the program, known as DAPA, are scheduled to be held Monday, and activists hope to use the simultaneous protests to bring awareness to the issue, as well as build public pressure on the high court.

According to organizers, the rally in Washington will include labor unions, undocumented families and workers, and Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us. Sophie Cruz, a young girl who ran to Pope Francis to give him a letter last year urging him to help protect her parents from deportation, will also address the rally, which will be headlined by La Santa Cecilia, a Grammy award-winning band from Los Angeles.

"It hits close to home," said Jose “Pepe” Carlos, a DREAMer and band member. "I was undocumented for 25 years, it's really unjust and unfair that we’re not given the credit we deserve as latinoamericano immigrants."

While Carlos is no longer undocumented, his parents are, and if DAPA is struck down by the Supreme Court, their ability to remain in the country legally could be thrown into jeopardy.

"Hopefully it goes through because it's not just my parents but a whole generation of parents who are going to benefit," he said.

Similar rallies are scheduled in cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Houston, and Denver, and a week-long vigil will continue through Friday.

"Regardless of what happens we're going to raise awareness of the stark differences between deporting our neighbors and family members and finding a real solution," said Alida Garcia, director of coalitions and policy at FWD.us.

"We want to send a message that this is very personal for our community," said Rocio Saenz, SEIU International executive vice president. "We are in the moment where we are going to have to make a decision on what type of country we’ll have."

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images

Ted Cruz received an indifferent welcome at the annual New York State Republican gala on Thursday, with attendees talking over his speech and walking around while he was still onstage.

All three Republican candidates spoke at the event at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown Manhattan, with Cruz going last. Cruz, wearing a tuxedo, began with a joke in reference to Trump's speech, which was mostly a detailed list of his various real estate and construction ventures. "I will admit to you, I haven't built any buildings in New York City," Cruz said. The line only drew muted laughter.

Cruz then pivoted straight into his stump speech around the themes of "jobs, freedom, and security," making few deviations from his standard remarks that he makes on the trail. Like most stump speeches, this one includes applause lines sprinkled throughout — but the audience barely applauded, and sometimes not at all.

Instead, they grew increasingly loud, with many people talking amongst themselves, milling about, and eating and drinking, their cutlery making audible sounds as Cruz soldiered on through his speech. The din grew louder and louder as the speech progressed.

After Cruz wrapped up and left the stage, state party chairman Ed Cox came onstage to emcee and said "Let's give him another hand!"

This dinner was always going to be a tough crowd for Cruz, especially after his comments earlier in the primary season about "New York values," which offended many New Yorkers and put him at odds with city officials. Despite the unfriendly terrain, Cruz has campaigned in New York City as well as around New York state ahead of the primary next week. But Cruz wasn't the only one who was met with less than full enthusiasm; John Kasich, who spoke between Trump and Cruz, also got a fairly muted reception, though less pronounced than Cruz's. And while Trump's long spiel about his real estate career — combined with an ode to the "New York values" that Cruz criticizes — was much more warmly received, even he was met with resistance from a few of the tables in the room, which pointedly stayed seated while others stood and clapped.

Attendees said afterward that they simply weren't all that interested in Cruz, and his infamous "New York values" comments still rankled.

"I'm a Trump supporter," said Michael, 50, who said he works in private equity and did not want to give his last name. "I've met Ted Cruz, I've met him a couple times, and I'm not really impressed with him as a candidate."

"It's probably because of his comments about New York values," said George Hoehmann, supervisor of the town of Clarkstown in Rockland County, who supports John Kasich. "I think people have had a difficulty forgetting that."

"Cruz absolutely had his supporters in the room, but you could see that it was really more of a Trump-friendly room," Hoehmann said.

"It wasn't a speech that was for a New York crowd," said Matthew Kaufman, a lawyer for a firm on Long Island and is supporting Donald Trump. "If you're gonna be here, know your audience."

"He gives the same speech everywhere," Kaufman said. "I understand, you know, you're making your appearances, but I don't think he knew this audience."

Seth Wenig / AP

While Clinton and Sanders mixed it up during a feisty debate in Brooklyn on Thursday night, the issue of immigration did not come up at all in the debate hosted by CNN and NY1.

In a state with the second-most foreign born people in the country, and where 3.8% of the population is undocumented, according to Pew, there was no discussion of immigration policy — one of the dominating issues of this election.

"We were expecting that they would be asked about that," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in the spin room after the debate. "She has spoken here in the New York primary about what she would do and has criticized him over his vote against the 2007 immigration bill that failed by a few votes."

There was also no talk of what was considered a major 2007 gaffe by Clinton, when she backpedaled away from driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, even though the governor of New York supported them at the time.

"She had influence here on driver's licenses," said Erika Andiola, Latino press secretary for the Sanders campaign. "It's a reason many people have been deported — because they didn't have driver's licenses."

Just this week, the Sanders campaign held a conference call on the issue. But it did not come up Thursday during the debate.

No mention was made of Clinton's record on immigration during her eight years as a senator from New York, either, when she co-sponsored the DREAM Act and helped an Ivy League DREAMer reenter the country, something her campaign has highlighted in recent weeks.

Similarly, Sanders was not asked about his plans to bring back some deported immigrants or about his plan to give health care to undocumented immigrants, and Clinton was not asked about her just announced plan to open an office of immigrant affairs. The positions mark a significant and often unexamined shift leftward in Democratic politics on the issue of immigration.

Nor were the candidates asked about their stated plans to go beyond President Obama's executive actions. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Monday — a day before the New York primary.

Likewise, the candidates were not asked about the rightward shift in the Republican debate, like Donald Trump's plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, which would affect Queens neighborhoods like Jackson Heights and Corona where 1 in 5 residents is undocumented.

Podesta also brought up reproductive issues as another that was not brought up. "I think these are two areas where people want to know their positions, these are frontline concerns for voters here in the state," he said.

Andiola said CNN and NY1, the networks that moderated the debate, erred in not bringing up immigration even once.

"I think we should definitely ask them why it didn't come up, Bernie has been bringing up this issue but this time he didn't get the opportunity," she said.

DNC spokesman Luis Miranda said it would have been good to discuss immigration in New York.

"I think they could have and it certainly would have been relevant to the audience here in New York," he said. "It would have been fitting."

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

The ninth Democratic debate, a two-hour brawl between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Brooklyn’s historic Navy Yard, really only came down to three minutes.

That was the amount of time it took on Thursday, from 9:15 to 9:18 p.m., for Sanders to try and seemingly fail to make the central case of the sharper-elbowed campaign he’s run ahead of the New York primary: that Clinton’s ties to Wall Street have made and would make her a shill for the billionaire class. On the trail, Sanders raises questions about Clinton’s character and her commitment to the cause of income inequality in connection to paid speeches she’s given to financial firms.

But asked to name one decision by Clinton that shows she favored Wall Street as a result of money she’s received, Sanders struggled to provide an example beyond arguing that the former senator should have moved to break up the big banks.

“Sure, sure. The obvious decision is when the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior of Wall Street,” said Sanders, “the obvious response to that is that you've got a bunch of fraudulent operators and that they have got to be broken up.”

Clinton, he added, “was busy giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $225,000.”

“Well, you can tell, Dana,” Clinton replied, addressing CNN moderator Dana Bash, “he cannot come up with any example, because there is no example.”

“I called them out on their mortgage behavior. I also was very willing to speak out against some of the special privileges they had under the tax code,” Clinton said, adding that she has supported the Dodd-Frank banking bill, “but I have consistently said that’s not enough. We've got to include the shadow-banking sector.”

Sanders cut in, but again failed to expand on the suggestion that Clinton would be less aggressive on Wall Street because of money she’s taken from the financial sector.

“Secretary Clinton called them out. Oh my goodness, they must have been really crushed by this,” said Sanders. “And was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements? So they must have been very, very upset by what you did.”

After the debate, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon argued that the moment had served to undermine “the principal argument that [Sanders] uses to attack her.”

“By now, he’s so deeply invested in this line of attack that you would have thought that he would have been ready to articulate a theory of the case as to how she’s been compromised by donations she received,” said Fallon. “But he whiffed.”

The debate was the true clash of candidates Clinton and Sanders had been previewing in the days leading up to the New York primary next Tuesday. The campaign in the state has seen some of the toughest moments of this year’s Democratic contest — with questions of judgement, qualifications, and honesty dominating public statements made by Clinton and Sanders on the Empire State stump.

Clinton’s tack was to question the depth of Sanders’ promised revolution. A New York Daily News editorial board interview, in which the Vermont senator appeared to struggle with policy specifics, was mentioned by Clinton and her surrogates constantly. The Sanders campaign dismissed the editorial board interview, but acknowledged it had become a burden in New York. By the end of the week, the campaign was attacking the paper — Jane Sanders called the ed board meeting “more of an inquisition” on Wednesday.

At the Navy Yard, Clinton mentioned the Daily News more than once.

Sanders’ pressure point has been Clinton’s ties to Wall Street. In recent weeks, he stepped up his criticism of Clinton’s paid and secret speeches to financial sector groups. On the stump in New York, he used the speeches, the donors to Clinton’s various super PACs, and her connection to Wall Street to question her judgement and suggest to progressives that Clinton doesn’t have their interests at heart.

A Sanders TV ad that first went up hours before the debate didn’t mention Clinton by name but sharpened the point that politicians like her are wrong for the country.

"Nothing will change until we elect candidates who reject Wall Street money," the ad’s narrator says over animation depicting a “rigged economy.”

That was just the broad strokes, though. Sanders said Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War might disqualify her to be president. Clinton said Sanders was a close friend of the gun lobby. Sanders said Bill Clinton needed to apologize for defending his wife’s use of the word “superpredator” back in the 1990s. Clinton noted Sanders voted for the bill she was defending when she used the comment. Sanders attacked Clinton for supporting fracking in the past, Clinton said Sanders set the environmental movement back by openly criticizing international deals made by President Obama.

All of it came up at the debate. The candidates yelled — into the audience, at each other, over each other — they took jabs, and they stood their ground.

Clinton drew out the week’s attack on Sanders as being weak on specifics, tied to the Daily News interview. Sanders stepped up his claims that Clinton had questionable judgement when it comes to the economic issues liberals care about.

Sanders struggled to make his case at the key moment, though. When he was asked exactly what Clinton had done or not done to appease the Wall Street donors he says influences her, he wasn’t able to come up with specifics.

After the debate, Sanders surrogates didn’t have much to add.

Tad Devine, chief strategist on the Sanders campaign, said the candidate had approached the question by successfully making “a broad case” against Clinton.

“I was fine with his answer,” Devine said. “He made a broad case against her that if you’re beholden to special interest money you’re not going to be able to make progress. That was the message of the debate and he delivered it from the beginning to the end.”

Top Sanders surrogate Nina Turner, a former state representative from Ohio, argued that the senator had in fact answered directly: “It was about her judgement or lack thereof versus his vision for this country. Period. And we felt that Bern tonight.”

Fallon, the Clinton spokesman, maintained that Sanders and his surrogates were unable to provide a specific answer to Bash’s questions because there isn’t one.

“That’s been our whole point,” Fallon said. “The reason why it’s pretty bad that he didn’t even have something to throw out there was because we have, at previous points, always argued that there’s no there there... Just as with the New York Daily News editorial board meeting that exposed the superficiality of his affirmative proposals, this exposed the hollowness of his principal line of attack.”

What the debate means in the long run isn’t clear. After days of saying his insurgent campaign had a shot at winning New York, he called it “a tough race for us” at a speech in Manhattan on Wednesday night. New York’s voter registration timeline and closed primary could make it hard for Sanders to turn his huge rallies across the state into votes on primary day, he said.

Clinton’s allies are happy to say that a solid win by their side in New York should mean the effective end of the Democratic primary. Delegate math — already showing Sanders as a heavy underdog for winning the nomination with pledged delegates — would become even harder for him to fight.

But Sanders’ top aides have vowed to press on until the end of the nominating process, and so far they continue to raise the vast sums required to do it.

In the debate hall, the primary stalemate played out in real time. Raucous supporters of both candidates cheered and booed; behind the scenes, campaigns cranked out more than the usual amount of rapid response email. Each side came dug in — and left that way.

AP images

A black progressive group is disassociating itself with a larger progressive coalition critical of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro’s handling of mortgages and foreclosures.

The executive director of ColorofChange, Rashad Robinson, told BuzzFeed News that his group was surprised by a Politico story in which representatives of the coalition questioned Castro’s progressive bonafides and his viability as a potential vice presidential pick.

"Attacking his commitment to communities of color or his next steps politically was not the campaign that we wanted to be a part of," Robinson said.

Robinson stressed that his organization is not new to the effort to push HUD and Castro to lean less on selling distressed homes to big financial institutions rather than nonprofits. When news broke of the coalition — which included 11 other progressive groups and the Latino organization, Presente — ColorofChange had only emailed 12,000 of its 1.2 million members with information about its involvement.

Robinson said he did not receive one phone call of complaint with the group’s involvement and did not see much blowback on their Facebook page, but concluded that the best way to keep the focus on the issue, as Elizabeth Warren and mayors around the country are doing, was to walk away from the coalition.

Behind the scenes, the Latino Victory Project, a group that helps elect Latino Democrats, worked with ColorofChange as it decided to leave the coalition while fallout from the Castro criticism grew.

LVP president Cristobal Alex thanked ColorofChange for its leadership and called the initial Castro comments a "direct, personal and political attack badly disguised as policy, and meant to sink one of our top Latino leaders as a potential Vice Presidential pick."

"These attacks are unacceptable and we're not going to take them any longer," he said.

On Thursday BuzzFeed News reported that Joe Velasquez, an experienced Democratic operative from Bill Clinton's administration, submitted his resignation letter to the board of American Family Voices, calling on the group to apologize for its part in ripping Castro.

Robinson also expressed frustration with American Family Voices head Mike Lux, who in an email to Velasquez, obtained by BuzzFeed News, apologized for not letting him know about the coming criticism of Castro, and said he was following the lead of black and Latino groups like ColorofChange and Presente who were part of the coalition.

"I haven’t spoken to him, I haven’t seen him in months," Robinson said. "So I'm quite disappointed that instead of standing on his own reasons he would choose to lean on us, when he has had no communication with us on this issue."

The leading national Latino coalition of 40 groups the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) also planned to kick out Presente, the only Latino group in the coalition — according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions — for attacking Castro when a stated goal of NHLA is to increase federal appointments of Latino officials.

While NHLA would not comment on internal deliberations, its chair Hector Sanchez sent an email to members Thursday, obtained by BuzzFeed News, disputing the plan to remove Presente from the coalition.

"One article that raised particular concern alleges that NHLA Board members have stated that NHLA “plans to kick out” one of our members. This statement is false and not an official position of the NHLA," the email read in part, while calling for unity from the groups.

But while NHLA has sought to avoid a public spat over the issue, privately it has told members the executive committee wants to deal with Presente "quietly and forcefully," a source within the organization said.

The anger has been that Presente "used the good office and good reputation of other NHLA members as cover to attack Latinos and attack other Latino organizations," the source said. "That they’re going to put an end to."

Turmoil Among Progressive And Latino Groups After Attack On Julian Castro

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton and Dr. Cornel West are set to appear together at a town hall with Bernie Sanders in New York on Saturday, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Sanders is convening a town hall to address faith, justice, and economic equality, a source briefed on the event said. The town hall will also discuss housing and income inequality.

Sharpton, a close adviser to President Obama, is one of the White House’s most prominent black allies; West is perhaps its most vocal critic, and their positions have been the source of tension between the two over the course of the Obama presidency.

West once called Sharpton the “bonafide house negro of the Barack Obama plantation” who had, along with Georgetown’s Michael Eric Dyson “prostituted themselves in a very ugly and vicious way.”

A source close to Sharpton who is familiar with the conversation said Sanders extended an invite to Sharpton Thursday. Sharpton agreed.

Sanders addressed the 25th gathering of National Action Network convention's Thursday.

Sharpton has yet to endorse in the Democratic primary race. West is supporting Sanders.

“I’m proud of you, Corey. He took it. It wasn’t easy. He wasn’t quite as effective for the last couple of months.”

Ian Macnicol / Getty Images

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Donald Trump told a group of Jewish reporters on Wednesday that he was proud of his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but added that Lewandowski had been less effective while dealing with allegations he inappropriately handled a reporter.

News broke Wednesday that Florida state prosecutors would not move forward on charges that Lewandowski had committed misdemeanor battery when he placed his hands on a reporter at a Trump campaign event in March.

"Well, I will speak to Corey. I was very loyal to him," Trump told the reporters when asked how he would bring the presumption of innocence back to the judicial system, audio of which was posted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday. "I was told by everybody to immediately fire him and everything else. And fortunately, I'm rich. And I have a lot of good equipment in ceilings for security purposes called tapers. And we had tapes of what took place. And when this young lady went out and said things, she didn't know she was being taped. It's wonderful every once in a while to have that in the ceiling, right?"

"And she said things, you know she was practically thrown to the ground and all this stuff," Trump continued. "I mean, it's almost he just lightly ran interference. I didn't even see a grab or any touch. She was touching me, you saw that. She was grabbing me. So, I thought it was disgraceful. And I thought it was disgraceful that the other two candidates said he should be immediately fired. And I guess today, at a later date, I don't know. Have you heard anything yet Corey?"

Lewandowski told Trump that he had just heard he would not be charged in connection with the incident.

"Yeah," he said. "They just dropped all the charges."

"Oh good," said Trump, to applause from the group meeting with him. "Now tell my friends from, in some cases Israel, tell my friends how loyal was Mr. Trump to you Corey."

"More than I could possibly fathom. And I was so grateful for your loyalty," replies Lewandowski.

"Oh it was great," says Trump. "I'm proud of you, Corey. He took it. It wasn't easy. He wasn't quite as effective for the last couple of months."

"Right, Corey?" Trump then asks.

"Yes, sir," he replies.

"Corey is a good guy and that was a horrible thing," Trump continues, saying had he not seen the tape, he might have fired Lewandowski.

"All of sudden when it was on tape she went, like, dead silent. So let's see what happens. I'm very happy about that Corey. That's great."

"Thank you, sir," Lewandowski said.

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WASHINGTON — President Obama will meet with several top recording artists Friday afternoon to discuss two of the administration's fourth-quarter priorities, a senior administration official told BuzzFeed News.

Obama will hold a roundtable discussion criminal justice reform and the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, the administration official said. Obama, along with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and My Brother's Keeper Task Force Chair Broderick Johnson, will meet with Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Chicago's Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, Common, Wale, and Busta Rhymes.

"Over the past few months, many of these artists have lent their voices and platforms to promoting these issues," the official said. "Many of these artists have found ways to engage on the issues of criminal justice reform and empowering disadvantaged young people across the country."

The White House selected the artists because each "found ways to engage on the issues of criminal justice reform and empowering disadvantaged young people across the country" through their artistry or nonprofit work.

Keys is spearheading an effort to urge Congress pass criminal justice reform legislation. J. Cole, a Fayetteville, N.C. native, has established the Dreamville Foundation and has built his career on inspiring fans to achieve their dreams, the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary.

Janelle Monae has been a vocal advocate for voting rights; Common is a My Brother's Keeper partner, and Busta Rhymes will participate in an effort to reform the nation's prisons.

Wale, who has spoken about his time spent in a detention as a youth, attended First Lady Michelle Obama's "Beating the Odds" Summit last year.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

A former strategist for a pro-Donald Trump super PAC is working on a book about her experiences, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The author, Stephanie Cegielski, wrote a widely-shared essay for XoJane last month denouncing Trump and describing her time working for a now-defunct super PAC supporting the candidate.

Cegielski's agent, Ryan Harbage of the Fischer-Harbage Agency, said he had already brought her book proposal to publishers "and immediately have booked meetings with several top publishers who are keen on the project. The plan is to release the book right before the RNC convention, which as you know is an extremely short schedule for book publishing."

Harbage wouldn't specify which publishers are interested in the book but said "I can tell you that a majority of the big five commercial publishers have scheduled meetings with the author."

In Cegielski's essay, she wrote of her disillusionment with the candidate, claiming that Trump did not actually want to be president — "The Trump camp would have been satisfied to see him polling at 12% and taking second place to a candidate who might hold 50%" she wrote. "His candidacy was a protest candidacy." Cegielski urged his supporters to reconsider backing him.

Though the essay's headline identified her as Trump's "Top Strategist-Turned-Defector," Cegielski actually did communications for the Make America Great Again super PAC, which shut down in October as questions were being raised about the PAC's close ties to the campaign. Trump disavowed super PACs supporting him in October.

"Stephanie met with all of the Trump campaign people many times over several months, before she started at the super PAC," Harbage said. "There will be many newsbreaks in the book. Like the essay, it will recount her first-person experience."

Cegielski's book would not be the only Trump-related book to come out before the election is even over. The Washington Post announced earlier this week that it was working on an investigative book called Trump Revealed which is scheduled to be published in August. The New York Post reported that the advance for that book is $500,000, a figure Harbage said he expected to be "at least" the size of his client's deal.

The working title for Cegielski's book is Trump Card: How Donald Played America.

Cegielski tweeted an apology this week for working to support Trump, saying "I should have been a better woman and role model. I'm sorry."

“Absolutely there’s concern,” says Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

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Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia says there's growing concern among her colleagues that if Donald Trump becomes the party's nominee, it will jeopardize Republican senators facing tough races for re-election.

"Absolutely there's concern, and so I think the focus you'll see from most senators and probably me as well is to try to get our senators re-elected to retain the majority because holding the majority in the Senate I think is important for the country," Capito told WRNR radio on Friday morning when asked if senators were concerned about Trump affecting their chances of winning down ballot.

"Certainly, it's important for me as a good Republican, so I'll pick a couple races, states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, that have incumbent Republican senators who I think are very good. Sen. Portman, Sen. Toomey, and Sen. Ayotte in New Hampshire," she continued.

Capito said Republicans in states where the final results are often close would be most negatively impacted by a Trump nomination.

"There's a lot of independents, there's a lot of Democrats in those states and you have to swing voters and that swing them from independents over to the Republican side," she said. "I think there's a real concern that Donald Trump would be a detriment to that at the top of the ticket. So, that's why you see them working extremely hard, raising a lot of money, and also distancing themselves in a lot cases from a lot of his comments. And I think that's what they need to do to try to win their individual races, but you can only win by two points, that's when whoever's at the top can really make an influence on your race."

“What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business and it’s none of government’s business.”

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

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Ted Cruz says he will not ban dildos and other sexual toys if he becomes president.

In a Mother Jones story earlier this week, it was revealed that Cruz defended a state ban on the sale of dildos as Texas's solicitor general.

"There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship," a brief co-authored by Cruz read.

Cruz, asked by WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa if he would ban "the sale of sexual toys, dildos, or anything that sexually stimulates you," answered that he would not.

"Look, of course not, it's a ridiculous question, and of course not," Cruz told Sliwa on Friday. "What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business and it's none of government's business."

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For a man who once tried to trademark the phrase "You're fired," Donald Trump seems awfully eager these days to cast himself as a loyal boss.

With his campaign reeling from tactical blunders and his inner circle gripped by infighting, the billionaire has spent weeks defiantly rejecting calls to fire his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski — and, often in the same breath, touting that decision as proof of his own personal character.

"Folks, look, I'm a loyal person," Trump said last month in a CNN town hall after Lewandowski was arrested for allegedly grabbing a female reporter. "It would be so easy for me to terminate this man, ruin his life, ruin his family.”

If the talking point originated as damage control, Trump quickly transformed it into a proactive pitch for his candidacy. Before long he was bringing up l'affaire Lewandowski unprompted at his rallies, and seizing the chance to spin it whenever the subject came up in interviews.

"I will be very loyal to the country," he said on Face the Nation.

"I will be loyal to Wisconsin," he proclaimed in Milwaukee.

During a meeting with Jewish activists and reporters this week in New York, Lewandowski informed Trump that the charges had been dropped. “Oh, good,” the candidate reportedly responded. “Now tell my friends from, in some cases, Israel, how loyal was Mr. Trump to you?”

“More than I could possibly fathom,” Lewandowski replied. “I am so grateful.”

This narrative has taken hold among Trump's aides, fans, and Twitter followers, who deploy it with the reverence of a mob family describing the code of omertà. As Lewandowski recently put it to New York magazine, "This campaign, above all other things, is about loyalty."

But if a bone-deep belief in personal loyalty really is the guiding principle in Trump's decision-making, it hasn't always been that way. A review of the billionaire's tumultuous, decades-long career — including interviews with former employees, aides, and confidantes — suggests that Trump's dedication to even his closest allies can wear thin, particularly at moments of professional crisis. Far from a tight-knit family of blood brothers, The Donald's inner circle has been purged and repopulated many times over the years. Devoted workaholics burn out and flame out. Longtime alliances end with lawsuits and tabloid sniping. Sometimes reconciliation follows, sometimes grudges endure — and rarely does Trump refuse to bury the hatchet when it's good for the bottom line.

A presidential campaign isn't real estate or reality TV, but the attention on Trump — and the expectations for him to perform — have never been more intense. As the Republican frontrunner scrambles to beat back a late surge from the GOP's anti-Trump forces amid an escalating power struggle inside his own campaign, the coming months will no doubt be chaotic and unpredictable for Trump and his team. Who will get his loyalty, and who will get kicked to the curb?

You don’t have to reach too far back for an example of Trump abandoning a faithful staffer. Just last summer, his nascent campaign fired Sam Nunberg — a young New York operative who had spent years working as Trump’s political adviser — after Business Insider published old racist Facebook posts he had written.

In a recent interview, Nunberg said he pleaded with his boss not to fire him. Trump had actually cut him loose once before, in 2014, after Nunberg arranged for him to be interviewed by BuzzFeed News, and the resulting profile displeased the billionaire. In that case, Nunberg said, he had chosen to "fall on his sword" to help Trump save face — and he was rehired the next year. This time, he believed Lewandowski had personally leaked the Facebook posts in an effort to oust him. (The campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but Lewandowski has denied this.)

Nunberg now notes that even though Al Sharpton found it in his heart to forgive him for the racist posts, his longtime boss was less generous. And while he ultimately accepted Trump's decision, Nunberg was hurt when the campaign announced his termination with a press release that called him a "low-level, part-time consultant."

“Why would Trump even approve that statement?” Nunberg asked, eight months later.

As for Trump’s decision to stand by his current campaign manager amid a much greater public backlash, Nunberg is skeptical that the decision was motivated solely by principle.

“It seems to me it’s a convenient argument,” he said. “Donald is very superstitious, and I can see him [saying], ‘I’m winning with this guy, I don’t give a shit.’ [Trump] can certainly be loyal, but it’s selective.”

Of course, not every lieutenant who makes it to the inner sanctum of Trump Tower gets so unceremoniously defenestrated. Some key aides, in fact, never lose their perch. Keith Schiller, a retired NYPD detective who runs security for Trump, has held the job for 17 years. Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime secretary and gatekeeper, has been with him for more than 25 years. In private and in public, both of them gush about their boss's generosity and extol his virtues with what seems like genuine affection.

In other cases, Trump has shown a tendency to toss aside top employees — even those who share his DNA — when he's under extreme pressure (or, perhaps, looking for a scapegoat). In 1990, when the disastrous opening of the Taj Mahal Casino threatened to unravel Trump's Atlantic City casino empire, he aimed his fury at his younger brother, Robert, who worked on the project. According to a 1991 book written by a former Trump executive, the magnate angrily berated Robert in front of other employees.

“I thought you could handle this,” Trump said. “I must’ve been out of my mind. I let you make recommendations. I’m sick and fucking tired of listening to you.”

Robert immediately departed the casino seething, according to the book, saying, “I don’t need this.”

Trump’s critics said he was trying to throw his brother under the bus to cover up for his own failures. True or not, the episode reportedly put a lasting strain on their relationship.

“I think that he showed some disloyalty when he blamed his brother and the managers over at the casinos for the problems with the casinos,” said Barbara Res, a former executive in the Trump Organization. But, she reasoned, Trump's company was on the brink of bankruptcy and his financial problems were spiraling. "He was not himself.”

At the same time Trump's business was tanking, the tawdry details of his breakup with his first wife, Ivana, were being smeared across the New York tabloids. Charged with the unenviable task of preserving the celebrity businessman’s image was Howard Rubenstein, a veteran PR man who had worked for Donald for 17 years, and before that represented his father, Fred Trump.

Rubenstein's talents were legendary — Rudy Giuliani later hailed him as “the dean of damage control” — but tamping down coverage of a juicy celebrity divorce proved all but impossible. Incensed by the nasty headlines that were piling up, Trump abruptly axed his longtime publicist one day, giving notice of the decision in what USA Today called a “curt letter.”

“There was a time when he was upset with everybody,” Rubenstein told BuzzFeed News more than two decades later. Still, as far as he could recall, the rift "lasted no longer than it took the letter to arrive."

Whatever Trump's personal feelings about Rubenstein's performance, it appears he either got over it or determined there was little value in holding a grudge against someone who traveled in the same elite Manhattan circles that he did. By the mid-2000s, the two were once again enjoying a mutually beneficial relationship. When Rupert Murdoch needed help finding a temporary rental in the city, Rubenstein connected him with The Donald. And while Trump eventually hired the publicist's son, Richard, to represent him, the elder Rubenstein proved in his interview with BuzzFeed News that he still has the talking points down.

“I find him to be one of the most loyal persons I’ve dealt with in my 62 years in my own business,” Rubenstein said, adding that “if you’re loyal in terms of integrity and honesty, he will show you integrity.”

While Trump's own track record of personal loyalty might be mixed, there is no question that he demands it from his employees. To work directly under Trump is to cede virtually all of your time and attention to serving him. Even after falling out bitterly with Trump, some ex-employees recall the highs and lows of the experience with a certain degree of fondness.

As Blanche Sprague, one of Trump's former executives, told the Washington Post in 1987, "To work for Donald you absolutely have to love him, because he will absolutely drive you crazy. There are days when I could cheerfully bludgeon him to death. He starts calling you at 6 in the morning and finishes at 11 at night."

Sprague, whose stylistic similarities to her boss were noted in the press in the '80s, was a key figure in the early days of The Donald's empire-building. Perhaps inevitably, their productive relationship ended in a firing, and then a flurry of litigation, and eventually a high-profile volley of insults, accusations, and hyperbole. At one point, Trump claimed that Sprague's fiery behavior had directly caused 63 employees to leave his company.

(Sprague declined to comment for this story, though in a decidedly Trumpian move, she accused BuzzFeed News of running stories "based on tidbits that they picked up from the street,” and advised a reporter to “take your career out of the street.”)

In interviews and speeches, Trump is fond of name-dropping his many famous "friends" (Tom Brady, for example, or Don King) — a rhetorical tic that makes it difficult to identify his actual friendships. But by virtually all accounts, one of Trump's closest friends early in his career was Roy Cohn. An infamous attorney and ex-aide to Joseph McCarthy, Cohn served as a mentor to Trump through much of the '70s and '80s. He hooked the young tycoon up with his powerful New York political connections, and exploited relationships with the mayor and others to help deliver for Trump the Commodore hotel, a decrepit teardown above Grand Central that he transformed into the Grand Hyatt. Trump held up his end of the friendship as well: When Cohn was facing disbarment in the mid-'80s, Trump testified on his friend's behalf as a character witness. For a while, according to Vanity Fair, the two men spoke "15 or 20 times a day."

Then Trump found out Cohn was HIV-positive.

He moved swiftly to cut ties with his mentor, seeking out new attorneys and transferring his legal business to them. The sudden rejection stunned Cohn. Commenting on the betrayal, Cohn reportedly said, "Donald pisses ice water."

“I don’t know how he found out that Roy was HIV positive, and then it was like, boom, gone,” recalled Susan Bell, Cohn’s longtime secretary, in an interview. “Which was kind of shocking because they were friends. But who knows Donald’s motives? I assume he didn’t want to associate himself with somebody tainted.”

Bernie Sanders at the Vatican on Friday.

Angelo Carconi / AP

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders met with Pope Francis during a lightning visit to the Vatican on Saturday morning, but he said his visit to the Holy See did not signify a papal endorsement of his campaign.

“I conveyed to him my great admiration for the extraordinary work that he is doing all over the world in demanding that morality be part of our economy,” Sanders told reporters on his flight back to New York , according to the New York Times.

Sanders arrived in Italy on Friday, having been invited to a conference on social justice and economic issues organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies.

Prior to his leaving, questions had swirled over whether the Vermont senator would have the chance to meet the Pope, whom he has cited as a role model on matters of poverty and the environment.

On Friday, the pontiff had sent a handwritten note to those attending the conference, apologizing that he would not be able to meet with them due to a scheduling conflict involving his trip to the Greek island Lesbos.

But the two met at 6am at the Vatican City guesthouse, according to NBC News, along with Sanders' wife, Jane, and his campaign economic advisor, Jeffrey Sachs. No photos of the meeting were taken in accordance with the rules of the guesthouse, the New York Times reported.

"Today certainly was the highlight of the trip," Sanders told NBC, describing the pope as "one of the great leaders in this world."

The Pope later told reporters aboard the papal plane the meeting was not a political act.

"When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," he said. "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist."

Sanders acknowledged that his decision to attend the conference would cut into time campaigning ahead of a crucial primary in New York on April 19, but believed the Vatican invitation to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"I am a great admirer of Pope Francis and when I received this invitation, I believe that I would've kicked myself for the rest of my life if I did not attend a conference here in the Vatican to deal with issues that have been important to me for decades," he told NBC News.

He denied, however, that he was trying to seek a papal endorsement by attending the conference.

Also present at the conference was Evo Morales, the socialist leader of Bolivia, with whom Sanders was photographed sharing a warm handshake.

Pool New / Reuters

Sanders acknowledged that he did not agree with all of the Catholic Church’s teachings on some social issues such as same-sex marriage, but lauded the Pope for his role in changing attitudes over others, like the environment.

He told reporters that Pope Francis’ encyclical (a letter sent to all bishops in the church) on creation “played a profound role in turning many people’s minds around about the urgency of the moment in terms of dealing with climate change,” according to the Catholic News Service.

Shortly after his meeting with Sanders, Pope Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos to visit an immigration detention center. He then took three Syrian refugee families, a total of 12 people, back to the Vatican.

LINK: Pope Francis Is Taking 12 Refugees Back To The Vatican Following His Visit To Lesbos

CNN / Via go.cnn.com

Michelle Fields, a former reporter for conservative website Breitbart News, on Sunday questioned the integrity of a Florida state attorney who declined to prosecute Donald Trump’s campaign manager — even though police had charged the campaign manager with misdemeanor battery for forcefully grabbing Fields’s arm at a Trump campaign event in March.

“The entire situation seems a little sketchy,” Fields told CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday.

Fields said the prosecutor and his wife had ties to Trump, including visiting his Florida estate, and she alleged the prosecutor relied on a Trump campaign ally as an expert in forming the decision to decline to proceed with the charges.

“I think the prosecutor’s decision, the way they handled this whole situation, was unprofessional,” she said. “I just don’t agree, obviously, with their decision.”

Fields also skewered Trump and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, saying their attempts to discredit her story and initially deny the altercation happened — later revealed on video — amounted to defamation.

“Corey lied. Trump lied. They defamed me,” she said. “And they went on this huge smear campaign against me.”

On March 8, Fields attended a Trump event at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as a reporter for Breitbart. When she tried to approach him, Lewandowski grabbed her arm. She later posted photos of bruises on Twitter.

Trump's campaign initially denied that the altercation happened, saying she had made it up.

After Fields took her case to authorities, the Jupiter Police Department released a video from surveillance cameras showing Lewandowski reaching for and grabbing Fields, and said they would charge Lewandowski with misdemeanor battery.

But Palm Beach County Florida State Attorney David Aronberg on Thursday announced he would not pursue those charges because he lacked enough evidence.

“Although the facts support the allegation that Lewandowski did grab Miss Fields’ arm against her will … there is sufficient evidence to presume his innocence,” said Aronberg, who added “any contact was incidental and that is not contemplated under the simple battery statute which requires an intentional and unwanted touching.”

The Trump campaign and Lewandowski had praised the decision, maintaining that Lewandowski had not erred.

In her interview on Sunday, Fields questioned the relationship between Trump and Aaronberg’s wife, Lynn, who runs a public relations firm.

Her firm’s website features a photo of Lynn Aaronberg with Trump, alongside promotional text that says that Mrs. Aronberg is "capitalizing on strong relationships." Both members of the couple two have visited Trump's estate repeatedly, Fields said.

Donald Trump is seen with Lynn Aronberg in those photo of the website of Lynn Aronberg Public Relations.

Via lynnaronberg.com

"If I was a prosecutor and my wife was trying to monetize her relationship with Donald Trump — and it's right there on her website — and I’m partying all the time at Mar-a-Lago, I would recuse myself from the situation in the case," said Fields.

Further, Fields said the prosecution did not involve an independent source when deciding to not press charges. She claimed the prosecutor instead used "an expert that the Lewandowski camp gave to them."

Gossip Extra quoted David Aronberg as saying in March, “I know Donald Trump, I’ve been at Mar-a-Lago a bunch of times." However, David Aronberg also said that his relationship with the wealthy Republican contender was not an issue in the case — pointing out that he is a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton for president.

With charges off the table, Fields said she would not rule out a defamation lawsuit against Trump and Lewandowski. “I think they were trying to defame me and I think it shows malice,” she told CNN.

The Trump campaign, David Aronberg, and Lynn Aronberg did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ requests for comment on Fields’s allegations.

Watch the interview:

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The Sanders campaign’s celebrity PSA campaign ahead of the New York primary.

Bernie Sanders has spent a lot of time recently roaming around his old hometown of Brooklyn trying to gather votes for the April 19 primary, where he's down in the polls. His campaign used the opportunity to leverage Sanders' celebrity supporters.

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Justin Long, Josh Hutcherson, and Mark Ruffalo shot issue-focused videos for Sanders his campaign is calling "PSAs." They also star documentarian Matthew Cooke.

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“I just can’t figure it out,” de Blasio said.

Nir Elias / Reuters

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a radio interview on Monday, said it would "make sense to him" that pro-Bernie and anti-Hillary forces were the reason a racially-tinged joke he made at an event last week generated controversy.

Appearing on Ebro in the Morning on Hot 97, the mayor was asked if outrage over the joke was the result of "anti-Hillary fervor and the pro-Bernie fervor."

"I would think that makes sense, because otherwise I can't figure out," de Blasio answered. "I just can't figure it out. I mean Chirlane was on one of the shows on the weekend, and they asked her and she said, 'guys, it was a satire. The whole thing was a satire.'"

During a skit at the political roast show Inner Circle, Hillary Clinton asked de Blasio why it took so long for him to endorse her. The mayor said he ran on "CP time," in reference to the phrase "colored people time," a stereotype about people of color constantly running late.

"Sorry, Hillary, I was running on CP time," de Blasio said at the event.

"I don't like jokes like that," responded Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., who also took part in the skit.

"Cautious politician time," Clinton responded. "I've been there."

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — The eight-member Supreme Court was closely divided on Monday morning when it heard arguments over several states' challenge to the Obama administration's 2014 immigration executive action known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

The policy would grant deferred action — a decision not to seek removal of unauthorized immigrants — to the parents with no criminal record of those who are Americans or have permanent legal status. Along with that, the program provides for work authorization and limited benefits — primarily, Social Security — for those granted deferred action.

The states — joined by the House of Representatives — argue that such a policy runs contrary to existing immigration law and, as such, is an illegal policy.

While the justices appeared split 4-4 on conservative-liberal grounds over whether DAPA itself and its effects are ultimately legal, Justice Anthony Kennedy signaled an openness to dismissing the case on standing grounds — a ruling that this lawsuit was not the proper way to bring such a challenge.

The Obama administration has maintained that the states, led by Texas, lack standing to bring this challenge because the injury Texas claims — costs related to issuance of drivers licenses to those granted deferred action — is speculative. The states and House, however, respond that there has to be a way for courts to review such a significant policy decision if, as they argue, it is an illegal action.

On Monday, the four more liberal justices pressed questions about standing, while also attempting to pin down the two lawyers arguing against the policy — representing the states and the House — on exactly what it was that they believed was impermissible about the administration’s DAPA action.

The liberal justices pinpointed the primary concern raised by the states as the work authorization and provision of limited benefits to those granted deferred action under DAPA. The work authorization in DAPA, however, flows from an existing regulation that allows the government to grant work authorization for certain immigrants.

Justice Anthony Kennedy asked at multiple points whether the proper case wouldn’t instead be one challenging the Obama administration’s application of that earlier regulation. Kennedy suggested that such a lawsuit, brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, could argue that the Obama administration expanded the use of that earlier regulation so much that it, effectively, changed the regulation.

If the states had challenged the DAPA that way, they would have been able to challenge the effects of the executive action while avoiding one of the administration's stated concerns. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. argued on Monday that a ruling finding that the states here have standing "would invite a flood of litigation" from states challenging federal actions whenever there is an indirect effect on their budgets.

If the justices are uninterested or unable to reach a majority ruling based on standing, however, Monday's arguments suggested the justices could split 4-4 on the question of whether the Obama administration's DAPA actions, including the work authorization and benefits provision effects, run contrary to current law. Such a ruling would leave the current injunction against the program in effect, with the practical result of dealing a loss to the Obama administration.

On that merits question, Justices Kennedy and Samuel Alito, along with Chief Justice John Roberts, appeared very skeptical of the administration's action. Kennedy at one point said that whole process "seems backwards," with the administration effectively defining the limits of its own discretion.

Although Justice Clarence Thomas didn't speak up at arguments, as is his general practice, he would be expected to side with his conservative colleagues on the matter.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A coalition of progressive groups is asking the Congressional Black Caucus to overhaul the way its political arm operates, according to an open letter shared with BuzzFeed News.

“The members of the Congressional Black Caucus need to stand up to the corporate lobbyists that currently make up the majority of the Political Action Committee’s board,” the open letter reads. “Between donors and board members, the committee is under the influence of some of the companies and industries with the worst track records of abuse and exploitation of Black people.”

The letter’s signees include Color of Change, Black Lives Matter, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Million Hoodies for Justice.

The letter takes issue with the PAC’s corporate board, and its ties to private prisons and big tobacco lobbies. Before the South Carolina primary, the CBC PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, following the endorsements of many individual CBC members over the past year.

Rashad Robinson, Color of Change’s Executive director called the political action committee’s relationship to corporations “a danger to Black communities when it allows lobbyists from dangerous industries like private prisons and Big Tobacco to make decisions about who represents black people.”

Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said, "It’s time for the CBC to put the power in the hands of black people, their constituents, the ones who bankroll their paychecks. It’s time for them to stop playing politics and start doing their jobs."

"Our communities depend on leaders in Washington that will protect them against corporate entities such as private prisons, detention centers, and others that harm and exploit us,” Opal Tometi, the executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration said.

Dante Barry of Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, said the CBC PAC “aligns itself with private prisons, big tobacco, and anti-worker companies that don't work to ensure that Black lives matter.”

In February, Color of Change slammed the PAC for its non-endorsement of Donna Edwards in the Maryland Senate race.

Here's the letter in full:

Dear Congressional Black Caucus Member,

We are writing to ask you to take immediate action to restore the reputation of the Congressional Black Caucus by pushing for changes to the board of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee that would end the dominance of corporate lobbyists in its decision making. The board should be lead by people accountable to Black folks, including elected officials and representatives from organizations representing the interests of Black people, not lobbyists paid to wield corporate power. I'm also asking you to insist that the board cut ties with funders from the private prison lobbyists, the tobacco industry, and the National Restaurant Association, just three of the worst corporate sponsors of the PAC.

Black people have struggled for centuries to build political power that represents their interests in the face of deep racial inequalities. One of the most challenging obstacles to Black political power has been the increasing power that corporations wield in the political process through political contributions and lobbying. We were appalled to learn that the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBC PAC) is yet another example of the expansion of corporate power at the expense of Black people.

Although its name indicates that the CBC PAC is lead by elected Black leaders, its board is dominated by corporate lobbyists. In addition, the CBC PAC is largely funded by corporate lobbyists and Political Action Committees. Between donors and board members, the committee is under the influence of some of the companies and industries with the worst track records of abuse and exploitation of Black people.

As you know, the Congressional Black Caucus has been known as the 'Conscience of the Congress' for decades. When it represents the interests of Black communities, it can be a moral force driving the nation in the direction on inclusion and equity. However, with its political action committee under corporate influence, it becomes a shell for business interests that not only have no commitment to Black people, but a vested interest in our disenfranchisement.

Black people and our allies in the fight for racial justice are in an unprecedented moment where we are building power and holding elected officials and candidates accountable in very real ways. Whether it be protesters in the streets, online activism or Black voters turning out in historic numbers in recent elections, Black folks are speaking clearly and using our voices to call for change. That voice should not be watered down or drowned out by corporate influence.

Please act now to rally your colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to end the corporate dominance of the CBC PAC board.

Thank you,

Black Lives Matter

ColorOfChange

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration

The Campaign for Media Justice

Black Lives Matter Sacramento

Black Lives Matter Rockland Alliance

Black Lives Matter Bay Area

Black Lives Matter NYC

Black Lives Matter Tampa Bay

“They’ve been wining and dining these people for years.”

Layne Murdoch / Reuters

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Donald Trump Jr., in a radio interview on Monday, likened the Republican delegate system that determines who wins the presidential nomination to something out of communist China.

"Since when should the presidential candidate for the Republican or any other party for that matter to be the president of the United States — when should they have to cater to small group of delegates as suppose to what the will of the people actually is," Trump told Sean Hannity. "I mean, that's almost mind boggling. I mean, I feel like we're living in communist China, it's ridiculous."

Trump Jr. said the delegate selection system meant you have to be a member of the political establishment to win.

"They've been wining and dining these people for years, and it does set it up so that you almost have to be establishment, and I can see that," said Trump Jr. "All the establishment guys, they all want to think that they can be president whether they're qualified or not. Whether they have the temperament or not. Whether they all have the ability or not, they all want to sit there, that's why they're writing their big checks, so they can get a seat at the table."

Trump Jr. said his father gave a voice to the people by working outside the system and took aim the Republican National Committee for disenfranchising voters.

"The RNC and everyone has been pushing this for year, 'you got to watch all the debates because your vote counts and your vote matters. Oh, guess what it actually doesn't we were just kidding."

Sad!

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

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Donald Trump's spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, said he has been practicing more discipline recently by cleaning up his tweets in hopes of being the Republican nominee.

"Oh, absolutely, I think you've probably noticed the Twitter feed lately," Pierson said on Breitbart News Radio on SiriusXM Tuesday morning when asked if Trump would more disciplined.

"Mr. Trump in the beginning had to take on 17 candidates, all the special interests, and so he had to come out swinging with everything he knew — and keep in mind this is a first-time politician. Donald Trump has only been a politician for 10 months. He's never been politically correct, he's never guided by focus groups and by polling, or any of those things a lot politicians use just to tell people what they want to hear the way they want to hear it."

Pierson remarked Trump was very truthful and upfront early in the campaign as reasoning for his lack of a filter, but now, she said, the campaign team was moving towards the general election.

"Now that we've winnowed the field down, you've seen the campaign team is growing, preparing for a general election. He's getting ready to do a lot more policy speeches, a lot of people are looking forward to that," Pierson said. "And he does understand and recognize ... a transition is occurring because Mr. Trump has been finally been able to navigate that balancing act of being a politician and taking on essentially the world."