# Trump's Republican primary campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 3, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828 "2015-09-03T18:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 141
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2805 "2016-03-22T14:24:13Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Wow, our GDP is zero. I did not know that. I had been under the impression that it was somewhere around $18-19 trillion. But _zero_? Damn, I was certainly not expecting that. I guess you have to know those things when you’re an expert on trade, though. > > Huh. Zero. Learn something new every day… Well, Trump IS smarter than you. YUGELY smarter. That’s why we should elect him President. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2806 "2016-03-22T14:54:27Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Whoa - a poll by the more liberal-leaning Utah newspaper finds that Trump is slightly trailing Clinton in Utah. Sanders has an even bigger lead on Trump. > > [http://m.deseretnews.com/article/865650513/Poll-Utah-would-vote-for-a-Democrat-for-president-over-Trump.html](http://m.deseretnews.com/article/865650513/Poll-Utah-would-vote-for-a-Democrat-for-president-over-Trump.html) > > Pretty crazy. Utah has gone for the Republican candidates for fifty straight years. It’s because “[Mormon Voters Really Don’t Like Donald Trump — Here’s Why](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/mormon-voters-really-dont-like-donald-trump-heres-why).” > [@](#): > > These pro-immigrant attitudes are common among rank-and-file believers, many of whom have served missions in Latin American countries. Mormons are more than twice as likely as evangelicals to say they support “more immigration” to the United States, according to Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell. And a 2012 Pew survey found Mormons were more likely to say immigrants “strengthen” the country than they were to call immigrants an overall “burden.” When Romney ran for president in 2012 on a restrictionist immigration platform, his views were widely noted in LDS circles for being at odds with his church. > [@](#): > > Trump is off-putting to Mormons for more predictable reasons as well. His blatant religious illiteracy, his penchant for onstage cursing, his habit of flinging crude insults at women, his less-than-virtuous personal life and widely chronicled marital failures — all of this is anathema to the wholesome, family-first lifestyle that Mormonism promotes. And demographically speaking, Mormons tend to reside outside Trump’s base of support anyway. They have higher-than-average education levels, whereas Trump does best among voters without any college education; they are more likely to be weekly churchgoers, while Trump performs better with Christians who attend services infrequently. I’d be surprised if a huge number of Mormons voted for Clinton instead. But if there was any third party conservative candidate, they’d get a lot of Mormon support instead of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2807 "2016-03-22T16:28:48Z")
Thanks for that informative post. Now I can understand why Trump fares poorly among Mormons and it all makes sense. But if they are uncomfortable with both Trump and Hillary, what do they do? Sit out? ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2808 "2016-03-22T16:37:15Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > There is nothing bogus about that. No on is implying Trump is a Klan member or even a sympathizer. What is significant and newsworthy is **their** support for **him.** No, it’s not newsworthy, it’s just a tool used to vilify Trump. The coverage is purely sensational. The Klan is incredibly marginal, with effectively zero influence. An endorsement from the American Ferret Association would be more newsworthy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2809 "2016-03-22T16:46:03Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > The Klan is incredibly marginal, with effectively zero influence. Yes, I’ve read that even most other White Nationalists regard the Klan as silly and dated. But David Duke is still the biggest-name WN in America, and when he gives an endorsement, they listen, and WNism ain’t **quite** so marginal as all that, and it’s newsworthy indeed, and also important and telling, that so many of them see Trump as the first presidential candidate in a long time who really speaks for them. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2810 "2016-03-22T16:47:07Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Thanks for that informative post. Now I can understand why Trump fares poorly among Mormons and it all makes sense. Mormons have more success proselytizing among non-Americans than among Americans, so it makes sense that they would be more welcoming to immigrants. [This is sure to bolster Trump’s support among Mormons, to some degree:](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brussels-attacks-mormon-missionaries-americans-hurt/) > [@](#): > > SALT LAKE CITY - Mormon church officials say three missionaries from Utah were seriously injured in the Brussels airport terrorist attack. > > The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement Tuesday identifying them as 66-year-old Richard Norby of Lehi, 20-year-old Joseph Empey of Santa Clara and 19-year-old Mason Wells of Sandy. > > A U.S. official told CBS News correspondent David Martin an American military family was among the injured. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2811 "2016-03-22T16:48:01Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > No, it’s not newsworthy, it’s just a tool used to vilify Trump. The coverage is purely sensational. > > The Klan is incredibly marginal, with effectively zero influence. An endorsement from the American Ferret Association would be more newsworthy. The influence usually comes by not telling others who they are while supporting Trump and working for him. Recently the news identified a few supporters that manned the Trump call centers who were white supremacists. And then the supremacists even funded robocall machines to do that. > **[Donald Trump And His White Supremacist Supporters](https://www.npr.org/2016/02/29/468606973/donald-trump-and-his-white-supremacist-supporters)** > > NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Evan Osnos of The New Yorker magazine for a broad look at the dynamic between the Donald Trump campaign and white supremacist groups. > [@](#): > > OSNOS: The thing that got them the most excited was that they heard somebody railing against a culture of political correctness, and for them, that is a huge idea. It encompasses political elites and Wall Street and universities and major institutions in America to which they feel they are no longer able to gain entry. And then they saw Donald Trump, who is, let’s remember, in their view, the archetypal New Yorker. He presents himself as the archetypal elite. And to hear him saying things that they had been saying in private out on the fringe of politics was thrilling. > > SHAPIRO: Some of these groups have actively campaigned for Trump. There was a robocall in Iowa, for example. > > OSNOS: Yeah. Over the course of the fall and into the winter, they went from being just enthusiastic to being organized. And you had a number of white nationalists who made robocalls on behalf of Trump’s campaign. And then eventually, this led up to this moment now when David Duke has come out and called on his radio listeners to vote for Trump because, as he says, a vote for anybody else is treason to your heritage. > [@](#): > > **It’s worth pointing out that this is a tiny fringe in American life. But what we’ve learned over the years is that a small fringe can have an impact on politics, particularly in places where we have closely contested races and we have a party that is fractured around what sort of values the Republican Party will hold. And then it has the effect over time of dragging the political race deeper into the territory of ideas about white supremacy that never, in a very long time, at least, have had any place in American politics**. Add to that the tweets that he re-tweeted from white supremacists and one can see that Trump does not mind running around with people like that for a vote. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2812 "2016-03-22T16:55:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Yes, I’ve read that even most other White Nationalists regard the Klan as silly and dated. But David Duke is still the biggest-name WN in America, and when he gives an endorsement, they listen, and WNism ain’t **quite** so marginal as all that, and it’s newsworthy indeed, and also important and telling, that so many of them see Trump as the first presidential candidate in a long time who speaks for them. The candidate who bragged at AIPAC yesterday about his soon to be born Jewish grandchild speaks for David Duke and white nationalists? What a bizarre conclusion. No, he simply speaks strongly on one issue that they care about, illegal immigration. Just as the lefty candidates they sometimes support speak strongly about one issue they care about, Israel. No one prominent speaks for them, so they take what they can get. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2813 "2016-03-22T17:08:01Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Mormons have more success proselytizing among non-Americans than among Americans, so it makes sense that they would be more welcoming to immigrants. > > [This is sure to bolster Trump’s support among Mormons, to some degree:](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brussels-attacks-mormon-missionaries-americans-hurt/) Considering that ISIS wants to see their own world go down in flames as they want to die as martyrs, it seems to me and others that the terrorists would like to see Trump become president. > **[How ISIS and Trump Enable Each Other](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-isis-and-trump-enable_b_8735676)** > > How do Republicans help ISIS? Consider: The right wing's fervent defense of the right to buy assault weapons makes the U.S. a sitting duck for random mayhem. Yes, terrorists were able sneak weapons into France, where gun laws are much tougher, but... > [@](#): > > For more than two centuries, America has navigated crises without succumbing to the temptation to turn to a dictator. This could be our closest call yet — if we are lucky. > > President Obama’s Oval Office address Sunday night was one of his best, reminding Americans that “tough talk,” or “giving into fear,” or discrimination against Muslims will not keep us safe. His speech was forceful, yet rooted in reality and respectful of the complexity of the challenge that we face. It was the opposite of demagoguery. > > It is Barack Obama’s fate to be a relatively soft spoken and measured leader — and Hillary Clinton’s fate to be a woman — at a time when too many Americans are looking for a simplistic macho cross between Mussolini and Patton. Somewhere in hell, the zealots of ISIS and the extremists of the Republican Party are doing a danse macabre together. Thing is that since Clinton also helped in killing Osama, the support you are talking about going to Trump is not going to amount to much. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2814 "2016-03-22T17:11:31Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Mormons have more success proselytizing among non-Americans than among Americans, so it makes sense that they would be more welcoming to immigrants. > > [This is sure to bolster Trump’s support among Mormons, to some degree:](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brussels-attacks-mormon-missionaries-americans-hurt/) Don’t see how. Clinton is not one whit less warhawkish or tough-on-terrorism than Trump is, she’s just less incoherent about it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2815 "2016-03-22T17:13:19Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > The candidate who bragged at AIPAC yesterday about his soon to be born Jewish grandchild speaks for David Duke and white nationalists? What a bizarre conclusion. > > No, he simply speaks strongly on one issue that they care about, illegal immigration. Just as the lefty candidates they sometimes support speak strongly about one issue they care about, Israel. > > No one prominent speaks for them, so they take what they can get. He also, multiple times, retweeted bogus bullshit statistics from white supremacists; advocates for bigoted policies against Muslims; calls Mexican immigrants “rapists”; and says he’ll consider paying the legal fees of the man who assaulted a non-violent black protester. That’s what the white supremacists “can get” with Trump… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2816 "2016-03-22T17:15:28Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > The candidate who bragged at AIPAC yesterday about his soon to be born Jewish grandchild speaks for David Duke and white nationalists? What a bizarre conclusion. Just as evangelicals are willing to overlook Trump’s three marriages and boastful womanizing, just as rural white working-class Americans are willing to overlook Trump’s New-York-City-slickerdom and immense wealth, so WNs are willing to overlook that sort of thing. To each group, the whole Trump-package is too valuable to reject over details. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2817 "2016-03-22T17:53:47Z")
[Rudi Giuliani says he’ll probably endorse Trump.](http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/03/8594493/giuliani-says-hell-probably-endorse-trump) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2818 "2016-03-22T17:59:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Don’t see how. Clinton is not one whit less warhawkish or tough-on-terrorism than Trump is, she’s just less incoherent about it. People don’t want coherence; they want a guy like Trump with the _cojones_ to do what it takes after a terrorist attack: bomb Paris and Brussels back to the Stone Age. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2819 "2016-03-22T20:33:13Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > He also, multiple times, retweeted bogus bullshit statistics from white supremacists; advocates for bigoted policies against Muslims; calls Mexican immigrants “rapists”; and says he’ll consider paying the legal fees of the man who assaulted a non-violent black protester. > > That’s what the white supremacists “can get” with Trump… You are reeeaaally reaching here, you know that, right? Like lot’s of twitterers, he tweets and retweets constantly, from all over the place. That a certain infograph he tweeted was also posted somewhere else doesn’t really mean much. Islam is not a race, and Americans’ desire to mitigate the effects of the global Islamic insurgency here at home don’t make them bigots. A few hundred million people have these concerns. What a few hundred KKK members, or a few thousand White Pride Bozos, have to say on the issue is irrelevant. (except to turn it back on them and show their ideology to be vapid and gross for the same reasons Islamism and Jihadism are) And he speaks kindly of Mexican immigrants, the context of the quote in question was a discussion about _illegal Mexican immigrants_. It doesn’t matter how many others are simultaneously wrong about this along with you, you are still just as wrong. Trump vilified\* illegal\* Mexican immigrants as rapists. As far as “the man who assaulted a non-violent black protester”, do you have any evidence that race had anything to do with the incident? Or are you just trying to _make_ it racial? [What about this incident?](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/man-beat-protester-tucson-trump-rally-air-force-article-1.2572348) Is it racial in nature? Or is race just a component of the story when it makes it easier to bend the facts to fit the narrative that is being used to vilify Trump’s supporters as racists? The repetitions of the associations between Trump and the KKK, Nazis, and David Duke are sensationalist, lazy, ignorant, insulting slurs. [And nothing more](https://d.justpo.st/media/images/2016/01/14/everyone-i-dont-like-is-hitler-the-emotional-childs-guide-to-political-discussion-1452799024.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2820 "2016-03-22T20:39:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Just as evangelicals are willing to overlook Trump’s three marriages and boastful womanizing, just as rural white working-class Americans are willing to overlook Trump’s New-York-City-slickerdom and immense wealth, so WNs are willing to overlook that sort of thing. To each group, the whole Trump-package is too valuable to reject over details. Horrible analogy. It would be more like evangelicals over looking Satan worship and human sacrifice. David Duke and his fan club have a Jew and Israel hatred that runs deeper than any other part of the ideology, and which is incredibly [delusional and all-encompassing.](http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Supremacism-My-Awakening-Question/dp/1892796058) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2821 "2016-03-22T20:43:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Rudi Giuliani says he’ll probably endorse Trump.](http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/03/8594493/giuliani-says-hell-probably-endorse-trump) Just when I think Rudy couldn’t drop any lower in my estimation… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2822 "2016-03-22T20:44:46Z")
> [@Hank\_Beecher](#): > > Like lot’s of twitterers, he tweets and retweets constantly, from all over the place. That a certain infograph he tweeted was also posted somewhere else doesn’t really mean much. It is when the one making them does not apologizes for them and then re-posting them again. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2823 "2016-03-22T20:51:41Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > It is when the one making them does not apologizes for them and then re-posting them again. Exactly. Similarly, regarding David Duke: DD is free to endorse whomever he likes. The only rational, acceptable response from any responsible politician is to spit on his endorsement without hesitation. Trump failed that test, miserably. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/2824 "2016-03-22T21:08:36Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Exactly. > > Similarly, regarding David Duke: DD is free to endorse whomever he likes. The only rational, acceptable response from any responsible politician is to spit on his endorsement without hesitation. Trump failed that test, miserably. Nonsense. He had already disavowed the endorsement the night before. This idea is ludicrous, that accusers can repeat bullshit stories like this, ad infinitum, implying some kind of association which does not exist, and the accused must always snap to, defer to the potency of the accusation, and mindlessly and submissively repeat the platitude that is expected of them. Trump was refusing to acknowledge the premise of the question, refusing to acknowledge that it was even worthy of a serious response. That in no way is any kind of crypto-endorsement for the KKK, as so many are so desperate for it to be. One legitimate answer to the question: “I heard some things man, are you, like, cool with the KKK, bro” is “fuck you”. That’s more representative of how an ordinary person might answer, and those are the people Trump is talking to and winning over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=140) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=142)