In January, after Mrs. Clinton accused him of being sexist, he warned that Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions would be fair game, accused Mrs. Clinton of impugning the reputations of women who accused her husband of sexual indiscretions, then boasted that Mrs. Clinton had been intimidated into dropping the subject. Aides to Mr. Trump, three of whom insisted on anonymity to discuss the campaign’s internal deliberations, suggested he would likely return to that line of attack as his campaign prepares for a fall contest with Mrs. Clinton.

Trump has already been accusing Clinton of playing the “woman’s card,” and arguing that if she were a man, she’d get only “five percent of the vote.” He doubled down on this line earlier this week by mocking her “shouting” and expressing disgust that he will now have to listen to it for “months.”

It turns out, per the New York Times, the Trump campaign thinks this sort of thing will help him among women — in particular, among white women:

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Mr. Trump’s advisers, meanwhile, say that the woman’s card attack serves to undermine Mrs. Clinton by sowing doubts about her qualifications — not just with men, but with white women, who have supported the Republican nominee in every election since 1996 and are vital to Mr. Trump’s chances in November.

What’s notable here is that Trump’s strategy to “sow doubts about her qualifications” in the eyes of women does not consist merely in directly questioning whether those qualifications equip her for the presidency, which Trump will surely do. It also includes the essential ingredient of suggesting that whatever stature and respect she currently commands is essentially based on a scam.

Meanwhile, the planned attacks on Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions — which Trump will justify by saying he’s raising questions about her participation in smearing his targets — will likely be seen by many female voters for what it really is: An effort to imply she’s only where she is because she entered into a corrupt deal with Bill that was designed to enable her to piggy-back on his success. Will this really work among “white women”?

Well, the two most recent Post polls measuring Trump’s favorability ratings among various voter groups found that he is viewed unfavorably by around 66 percent of white women. It’s unclear why more of the same — or worse — would turn that around. But it’s also unclear whether Trump is capable of thinking rationally on this particular topic.

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* GOP INSIDERS FEAR CLINTON WILL DESTROY TRUMP: Politico talks to a range of GOP strategists, operatives, and activists in 10 presidential swing states, and finds:

More than three-quarters of GOP insiders expect Clinton to best the Republican front-runner in a general-election contest in their respective states….Added a Florida Republican, who like all participants was granted anonymity in order to speak freely, “Trump is grinding the GOP to a stub. He couldn’t find enough xenophobic, angry white Floridians to beat Hillary in Florida if he tried.”

There aren’t enough xenophobic, angry whites to carry Trump into the White House? Well, if there is one person who can find them all, it’s Trump.

* JANE SANDERS PREDICTS EPIC BERNIE COMEBACK: Bernie Sanders’s wife Jane Sanders predicts as much on Morning Joe:

“You remember in mid-March after a string of losses, the media wrote his political obituary and we came back to win eight in a row. So we’re expecting to do the same here.”

Of course, Sanders would need enormous victories in all these contests to catch Clinton in the pledged delegate count, so presumably the idea here is that winning them will encourage super-delegates to switch. But again, why would they?

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* REPUBLICANS RESIGNED TO TRUMP AS NOMINEE: That’s what the Post finds, after talking to a lot of senior Republicans:

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The party is at a turning point. Republican stalwarts opposed to Trump remain fearful of the damage the unconventional and unruly billionaire might inflict on the party’s down-ballot candidates in November. But many also now see him as the all-but-certain nominee and are exhausted by the prospect of a contested July convention, according to interviews this week with more than a dozen party figures from coast to coast.

You really could see many Republicans decide that a contested convention might be too unpredictable, risky, and exhausting — particularly since the best case scenario would be Ted Cruz as nominee.

* VIOLENCE ERUPTS (AGAIN) AT TRUMP RALLY: The latest example of it unfolded in Costa Mesa, California last night:

Trump protesters clashed with police officers here after a campaign rally Thursday hosted by the Republican presidential candidate….Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Orange County Fair & Event Center after Trump finished delivering a speech, chanting and waving signs insulting the candidate. The chaotic scene featured several instances of violence, though the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said no injuries were formally reported. One Trump supporter, who had been apparently punched in the face, was seen bleeding from his face.

You see, this proves Trump has been right all along: we need a president who will be really tough, strong, and great, and has big hands.

* WILL INDIANA STOP TRUMP? The New York Times looks at Ted Cruz’s frenzied effort to block Donald Trump in Indiana, and one key question is whether his collaboration with John Kasich (who is sorta ceding the state to Cruz) will matter to voters:

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Perhaps the most consequential question looming over the race now that Mr. Kasich has pulled back is whether his voters will support Mr. Cruz to stop Mr. Trump. It is especially pivotal in the Indianapolis area, the most voter-rich and affluent part of the state. If Mr. Cruz can make a strong showing here, it could offset Mr. Trump’s expected strength in the industrial areas of northern Indiana and the more working-class precincts of the state’s south.

If not, the chances of denying Trump the nomination will probably grow very slim. Republicans have four more days to stop him.

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We don’t know where Trump comes up with this stuff, but once again he’s wrong, wrong, wrong. Not every tarmac greeting for the president overseas involves a fellow leader; in fact, the airport ceremony is a relatively unimportant part of the trip. The real business is done in the formal meetings.

Of course, for Trump, the larger story is what matters: Obama has not made foreign leaders grovel sufficiently before the mightiness of America, and Trump is here to change that.

* AND TRUMP IS CONNING THE GOP BASE: Paul Krugman’s column notes the fundamental difference between the parties in this election: One party’s likely nominee is basically running a giant scam on the base:

What Donald Trump has been doing is telling the base that it can order à la carte. He has, in effect, been telling aggrieved white men that they can feed their anger without being forced to swallow supply-side economics, too. Yes, his actual policy proposals still involve huge tax cuts for the rich, but his supporters don’t know that….Establishment Republicans have tried to counter his appeal by shouting, with growing hysteria, that he isn’t a true conservative. And they’re right, at least as they define conservatism. But their own voters don’t care.