To the extent that anyone is surprised Trump is in first place, it’s because they gave the GOP too much credit.
The GOP base is ignorant and angry. So Trump is the obvious person for that sort of voter to drift to. They mistake his bluster for capability.
Yeah, he’s gonna get Mexico to pay for the wall. Brilliant. Probably about the time his investigators get back from Hawaii. :rolleyes:
YES! GO TRUMP GO! You tell 'em, SA! I desperately hope that the Republican party is filled with folks like you, and they carry Trump all the way to the nomination!
I’ll reserve judgement till I see how the debate goes tonight. In a sense he’ll be like a conservative on the Straight Dope, with nine other guys nitpicking every word he ever said in an effort to derail his message. It’ll be interesting to see how he copes with that. If he does well coming out of the debates then yeah, I definitely think it’s a possibility.
According to this article Trump’s favorable ratings among Republicans have increased from 35% a little over a month ago to 57% a week ago.
Trump once said that most of the people who don’t like him are people who’ve never met him, and it does seem that the more people get to know him the higher his numbers get.
Also from that article:
Republicans may love him. I mean, sure, Republicans have always loved people who hurl insults at decorated, disabled war veterans. But everyone else thinks he’s a asshole.
It seems as time goes by that more and more people change their minds about him being an asshole, or they just don’t care and place more importance on what he can accomplish.
The election is a long way off yet, and Trump still has lots of time to change people’s opinion of him. A three to one disapproval rating among the general public now is meaningless in terms of what it will be by the time the election rolls around.
All of this is contingent on how Trump does in the debates and whatever the media manages to drag up in an effort to scuttle his bid for the presidency. Once he starts showing serious signs of being the nominee (or achieving it) the media will be after him like no one since Nixon.
Him securing the nomination and leading the Republicans to defeat in the election will probably be the most positive action he’ll ever do for the country. It’ll basically be a grand act of political sabotage.
Another reason to love Trump: he has nitwit ideas about vaccination. Some years ago he declared that children were at risk from “massive” shots and he delayed his own child’s immunizations (as part of the classic antivax “too much too soon” rationalization). And facts haven’t affected his dopiness on this issue.
*"Trump’s “theory” about autism and vaccines has remained unchanged in spite of substantial evidence debunking it. In the time since that 2007 press conference, abundant evidence covering millions of children supports no link between the two.
Yet just last year, Trump took to Twitter, again, to urge people to spread out vaccines. Why? Autism, of course. Indeed, he’s so sure about a non-evidence-based approach to vaccination—“spreading them out”—that he’s promised to make it part of his presidential agenda. Why? To quote The Donald himself: AUTISM."*
Rand Paul has to be really pissed off at Trump for siphoning off the antivax vote.
How likely is it that other Republicans will challenge him on this issue? Taking a solid pro-science stand doesn’t come naturally to many GOPers.
SNORT! Bubba will still have game ten years after he dies. He’s the greatest Politician, as in player of the game Politics, I’ve seen since LBJ. And I’d still vote for him, even though I know I’m getting played. You gotta respect skills like that. 
He’s the gift that just keeps giving…
I can’t begin to express how useless the drop-a-link style of posting is in performing communication.
From the Washington Post:
Trump makes yet another (I don’t even know how to characterize this one) remark:
Gets a bad reaction:
And blames, of course, anyone but himself:
I cannot for one second begin to understand why anyone would want this person or the people he hires to be running this country. Have our standards of decency dropped so low that we view his actions, his statements as acceptable? This is just purely ridiculous. There’s no excuse for what he’s saying, and there’s no excuse for people excusing it. This isn’t a reality show on TV; this is us making a decision on who is going to be President. There’s a difference, or at least there used to be.
The full Trump campaign statement was gold:
Whatever the odds were of an independent Trump run, they probably haven’t gone down the last couple days.
Oh, please, please, please let it happen…
Donald Trump as an independent candidate for POTUS, David Gerrold finally publishing a new Chtorr novel… will hell freeze over too??? 
Nah, I want him to be the Republican candidate. He’ll do a lot more damage.
Though I agree that if the choice is dropping out or 3rd party, 3rd party is better.
Just to be clear, that was tweeted in March 2014.
No telling what his current position is.
But I fear it may help his popularity. Remember how Rick Perry got stomped on for supporting the anti-HPV vaccine last election cycle?
Seriously. FFS, don’t just set your fellow Dopers up with clickbait; at least tell us what you’re talking about. The link is so we can see for ourselves or get more info, not so we can get any info at all because you don’t give us any.
Donald Trump: ‘I keep whining and whining until I win’
Good point made in this link. He’s a whiner. Does Trump have the slightest chance to come out on top in an exchange with Putin? IMHO, he’ll just be another reason for the world to hate the US.
I apologize. I thought in the context of the discussion, it was somewhat obvious he said something stupid, and if interested, click, and if not, don’t.