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By Amber Phillips

(Erik Tanner/Contour by Getty Images)

In 1980, a 34-year-old Donald Trump said he didn't want to be president. Politics was a “mean life," he told a TV reporter while sitting in his Fifth Avenue apartment.

Three and a half decades -- and a lot of mixed messages -- later, Trump would change his mind and enter what you could argue is one of the meanest campaigns in recent memory.

But he spent years wavering about whether to run. And as uncertain as he seemed about entering politics, Trump also gave confusing messages about what he believed, report The Washington Post's Robert Samuels and Shawn Boburg in a great long read, a story based off "Trump Revealed," a book written with more than two dozen Post journalists coming Aug. 23.

Trump criticized Ronald Reagan. He embraced Bill Clinton. He was "disgusted" by Bill Clinton and called Ronald Reagan his role model. He changed parties seven times between 1999 and 2012, including a stint to consider a run under the Reform Party.

Donald Trump speaking to Larry King in 1999 about the possibility of running for president. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)

Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Billy Crystal attend a golf charity at Trump National Golf Club in New York in 2008. (Rick Odell/Getty Images)

But for a candidate with a history of inconsistencies, Samuels and Boburg also found evidence that Trump has been very consistent on three big themes, themes he reiterated even when he didn't want to run for office: 1) America is on the wrong track, 2) the rest of the world is laughing at us and 3) projecting strength is the answer. Those core beliefs seemed to drive Trump into the "mean life" of politics to seek the White House -- and get closer than most.

More than two-thirds of voters ages 18 to 30 say Donald Trump is a racist, writes Mic.com's Emily Cahn.

That's according to a new poll conducted GenForward and commissioned by the University of Chicago's Black Youth Project and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Even 58 percent of young white voters agree with the statement that Trump is a racist:

Mic.com / Source: GenForward, made by Graphiq

The Fix's take:
It's not just young voters. Even Trump's supporters -- white evangelicals -- say he has a problem with race, writes The Fix's Aaron Blake It's the lowest mark they give him in this new poll from Pew Research Center:
TrumpRace

But we question what impact this will have in 2016. So far this election cycle, we haven't seen evidence that Trump's unpopularity is working to Democrats' advantage. The Post's Vanessa Williams and Scott Clement recently analyzed exit polling across 25 states and found this: "African Americans account for a larger share of Democratic primary voters this year than they did in 2008, but that is because of older black voters, not higher participation by younger black people."

Speaking of polls! Let's talk everything you ever wanted to know about them

LOUISVILLE, KY - MAY 07: Nyquist #13, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, crosses the finish line during the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 07, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

(Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Actually, *everything* you want to know is probably too long to get into in this newsletter. But not on our blog, where The Fix's Philip Bump answers your questions about what the polls can tell us now and why they so often seem to be in conflict with each other.

Here's his main takeaway, which you should read if only to better understand explain why there is a picture of the Kentucky Derby in this newsletter:

"[T]hink about electoral polls as photographs of a horse race from a variety of angles. If you take a photo of a horse race right after it starts, it's going to be very hard to figure out who will win. It's hard to tell who's gaining and who's falling back. If the photo is taken head-on, you learn less than if it's taken from the side. That's why we tend to emphasize polling averages, which stitch those photos together like a film strip, giving us a better sense of movement and position."

Horse race ... Kentucky Derby ... get it?!

Your water cooler cheat sheet: RBG vs DT, part 2

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes part in a panel discussion after speaking at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. Ginsburg spoke as part of a series of events at Brandeis to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the nomination and appointment of Louis D. Brandeis to the U.S. Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

To the amazement of us all, the Supreme Court justice and the presumptive GOP presidential nominee are still going at it. Ruth Bader Ginsburg doubled down her criticism of Trump in a CNN interview late Monday, calling him a "faker." Trump fired back with this:

TrumpGinsburg

Trump sparring with untouchables isn't new (remember that time he got into it with pope?), but the Post's Supreme Court reporter, Robert Barnes, writes that this is an "extraordinary" moment for a Supreme Court justice: "Usually the most public interaction between the court and the political world comes at the annual State of the Union address, where the justices sit stoically among partisan cheers and catcalls."

They're in there somewhere. (The Washington Post)

The Washington Post's and New York Times editorial boards agreed with Trump that Ginsburg crossed a hallowed line in American governance. The Times even went so far to say "Trump is right."

The Fix's Blake looks back at other moments Supreme Court justices were criticized for being too political, and the examples he found don't seem to be nearly as direct as what Ginsburg said. (In 2012, liberal columnists called on the late Justice Antonin Scalia to resign after he said President Obama's decision not to enforce some deportation laws "boggles the mind.")

So what do you think? Did Ginsburg go too far, or was her criticism justified? And will she stay awake in the next president's State of the Union?

ginsburgnew2

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