Is Donald Trump a conman?

And now he's practically done it - he will be the Republican Party candidate, despite the top brass in his party not liking him very much.

Strange times.

Strange enough, but from the present point of view he's still unlikely to be president. He currently has a net unfavourable rating of about 25% compared to Clinton's 13%. Assuming that the people vote for the person they hate the least, Hillary should be a shoo-in.

Dangerous business backing political favourites nowadays.

Trump has been concentrating on winning the nomination and has not really started on Clinton yet. The problem for the Democrats is there is so much dirt on Clinton and it looks like an awful lot of it is true... she is damaged goods and Trump is going to Damage her a lot more before the election.

I think it will be close. I'll take Trump... each way.

Wish the UK had a Donald Trump

I bet there's many an American feels the same way.

Dangerous business backing political favourites nowadays.

 

Trump has been concentrating on winning the nomination and has not really started on Clinton yet. The problem for the Democrats is there is so much dirt on Clinton and it looks like an awful lot of it is true... she is damaged goods and Trump is going to Damage her a lot more before the election.

 

I think it will be close. I'll take Trump... each way.

Indeed, if someone had suggested to me 12 months ago that trump would be republican candidate and corbyn would be labour leader I'd had thought they'd be mad.

Thing is, once you get past the misogyny and racism he's probably the most left wing candidate the republicans have put up in years!

Is Donald Trump a conman?

If he is he is a blooming good one.

Kasich has now quit as well as Cruz leaving Trump last man standing. He will be the Republican nominee unless . . . .

well let's put it this way. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a Secret Service detail.

he won't win the election but regardless of what you think of Trump he has pulled off an amazing achievement and it is really the big story of the entire election already. He didn't just win. He slaughtered everybody he came up against and totally humiliated them.

and he did it in the face of a lot of establishment opposition too. The BBC, when they sniffingly reported that Trump had only come 2nd in the initial Iowa caucususes, described it as a 'big setback' for Trump.

huh? 'Setback' ???? How can it possibly be a setback for somebody to come from absolutely nowhere, somebody who has never held political office before and nearly win? The guy who suffered the 'setback' in the Iowa caucuses was not Trump at all but Jeb Bush, who was supposed to be the shoo-in for the nomination but could only manage 2.5% of the vote and sixth place. Trump slaughtered him. I thought as I was waking up to that totally ridiculous news bulletin on Radio 4, what the hell is the matter with the BBC? Why can't they report the news properly?

Trump is the Leicester City of politics,every body is a rootin' tootin' for him to win.

That's not going to help him, though. Misogyny and racisim are not big vote winners outside the states that would vote Republican anyway. The support he's getting from both the KKK and Vladimir Putin won't play well with a lot of the electorate, either.

Polls indicate that the majority of Americans now support his immigration policy... so it does appear to be a vote winner.

Labelling it racist to want to limit the damaging influence of Islam is not going to stop people in the non-Muslim world rejecting it and that is something the political elite need to get their heads around quickly. The rise of far right and nationalist parties across Europe are testament to this. Trump's proposal to ban Muslims entering the US, and it's popularity, is testament to this.

Attacking Trump is ultimately futile because it fails to address the root cause problem. Islam has a toxic impact wherever it goes and unless a way can be found to stop this then tolerance for Muslims in the West will continue to shrink and the desire for walls of separation will grow. We need an alternative proposal that works if we are to avoid the walls going up. What's the plan?

. Islam has a toxic impact wherever it goes.

hardly anybody in the USA is a Muslim. It's about 1%.

Trump hasn't got a prayer in this election. Even if he manages to equal what Romney did, and who lost comprehensively, it will be a miracle. A lot of conservatives who voted Romney in 2012 won't vote for Trump this time. They won't vote for anybody and they'll stay at home. Trump isn't like them. He isn't a conservative.

hardly anybody in the USA is a Muslim. It's about 1%.

Americans can see the mess Islam has made in the Muslim world, they can see the trouble it is bringing to Europe as the number of Muslims increases and they can see they don't have that many problems with a population of 1% Muslims. Can you not see why Americans might want to keep it that way?

Trump hasn't got a prayer in this election. Even if he manages to equal what Romney did, and who lost comprehensively, it will be a miracle. A lot of conservatives who voted Romney in 2012 won't vote for Trump this time. They won't vote for anybody and they'll stay at home. Trump isn't like them. He isn't a conservative.

The polls seem to agree with you but I would suggest that just one Islamic terrorist attack on US soil between now and the election could swing it entirely. Just watching what will unfold in Europe over the summer will also have an influence. And then there is Clinton, with so many skeletons in the closet that could suddenly flare up into an election loser. And with only two candidates... you are a brave man making the call despite what the polls currently say!

 

 

I would suggest that just one Islamic terrorist attack on US soil between now and the election could swing it entirely.

you haven't got a very high opinion of the judgement of the American people, have you. Like not a few people watching from afar, you may be thinking that the crowds at Trump's rallies are in some way representative of the voters as a whole, when they are not.

why would anybody would think that if there is some kind of Islamist 'October surprise' kind of event like a major terrorist incident, then that means millions would automatically flock under Trump's banner, a guy who has no experience of politics at any level at all, and especially international? Rather than under the banner of the candidate they are familiar with, who they don't have to take so much of a chance on, and who's had a great deal of experience at the absolute top level for a quarter of a century, and who's been, and recently, Secretary of State?

in the last election, 60 million voted for Mitt Romney. This is an election that Romney lost by a largish margin. What are those voters going to do this time? And especially those voters who are habitual Republicans, who always vote that way?

both the former presidents Bush won't be endorsing Trump. They not only won't campaign for him. They won't even issue a message of support for him. They probably won't even vote for him.

ditto the previous Republican candidates Romney, Tim Ryan and McCain. They won't be voting for Trump either. They're not even going to turn up at the Republican convention when they are the senior figures in the party. Same goes for dozens of other top level Republicans.

do you think that the millions of habitual Republican voters, who always vote Republican election after election, aren't going to notice that?

Sarah Palin will probably be there at the convention unless Trump realises she is even more of an electoral liability than him and bars her.

for sure Clinton has many faults and should have been vulnerable, if the Republicans had had a field of nominees that included a half-decent candidate. And yes of course it is a two-horse race. But there's never been a candidate, even an incumbent like Reagan in his 1984 landslide year, who has ever been such an overwhelming bookies' favourite as Clinton is now.