I can’t sort him out so I’d like some objective opinions about the following:
He’s bombastic, but I am loathe to call him stupid. I reckon him to be cut from the same cloth as P T Barnum, believing with all his head “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I also don’t believe he wants to be president because he’s got too many better things to do for himself. Which leaves me:
He’s a stealth Democrat intent on shattering the Republican party. Probably not the case unless he’s turning hyperbolic trollery into high art.
He is wanting to shock the Republican party & its base back into reality so they can field some actual competent opposition to the Democratic party. Let’s face it, this election is shaping up to be the Democrats’ to lose, which means it’s going to be Hillary’s or Bernie’s White House, which means if Bernie continues to piss Americans off at the oligarchy then Hillary is out. Bernie’s philosophies–thoughtfulness, education, regulation & disruption of financial giants–run counter to what makes Trump rich.
He is shaking the already fragile structure of the Republican party in an attempt to destroy it. Get it out of the way so something new and not beset by idiots and lunatics can take its place–Maybe a fiscally conservative, but visionary and positive movement that is more focused on uniting the country than in perpetuating division and nonproductivity.
Something else? I just refuse to believe he is actually as obtuse as he is behaving in the campaign. Taking the most offensive talking points, turning up the volume to 11and rebroadcasting them…this is not how you become rich. He’s playing at something, and it’s not just trolling for its own sake because it’s costing him money and ties.
Attention whore, looking to drive ratings for his stupid show, and his stupid self, is my guess. It won’t cost him money in the long run, I predict. He took a lesson from S Palin, I think. Say stupid shit, get on tv, same more stupid shit, get on tv even more. She developed enough currency for a job at Fox, a book deal, high speaking fees and news outlets STILL put a mic in her face from time to time!
Attention AND easy money? It’s probably irresistible to him!
On a serious note, I think he represents a huge part of that party which resents the establishment. Trump doesn’t say things for polls, which is why he’s leading by a mile.
I won’t be too surprised if the national GOP just gives up for 2016 and saves their money and energy for 2020. They know they can’t just shut the Tea Party out, and so they’ll let them have their day, and take back the nomination the next time. Just as the far-left got their Dukakis (which was moderate vs. Jesse Jackson, the 1988 Dem nomination runner up), the Tea Party will have to come home anyway in 2020.
One thing I’m amazed out: why are Christie and Kasich wasting their time and money? They both shoulda done what Bill Clinton did in 1987-1988: sit out the nomination and wait for the crazies to shut up.
I don’t think the crazies are going to shut up. They’ve been very successful in electing Senators and Reps, and local offices. They just think they’re ‘due’ for their mythical “One True Conservative” to lead the nation into the Promised Land of “The USA as it should be”.
Trump isn’t it. He’s the candidate of Stickinit. Stickinit to the libs, stickinit to the establishment, stickinit to the rest of the world that doesn’t hold to their ideas of how everything should work.
At the same time, I think he doesn’t say things for the polls because he doesn’t actually want to be president. This is all just a long con for publicity. I think if this longshot ever actually shows signs of possibly winning, he will find some way out of the election.
Self-aggrandizing egotist who thinks highly of himself and thinks others do as well because he’s put himself in a bubble of yes-men who aren’t allowed to tell him what they or anyone else really thinks of him.
I’m not. He is a stupid, stupid man. He is rich because his father was rich, he had lots of money to play with and some good luck (although not all good luck considering his various bankruptcies). He doesn’t understand the basic facts about how our government works, and he really believes that the loudest guy wins.
For some insight into the mindset of “I’m rich and important, therefore I could be president,” I recommend David Kuo’s book dot.bomb. It’s about a failed Internet startup, but the founder is a mini-Trump, right down to an insane belief that he would make a good U.S. president.
My two cents: he makes the Bible-Beaters-in-Government types all but invisible (along with, let’s face it, the rest of that God-awful field), and as long as he keeps that up he can be whatever he wants.
He wants to run for president because that job is recognized as the epitome of power and success. So showing everyone that he could get it if he wanted to (and later then casting it asside as unworthy of him) is the ultimate ego trip.
I think he honestly never expected to get this far. He figured he’d make a bunch of noise, get his name in the papers, have some fun and never break 5% in the polls. Instead, he managed to tap a vein of GOP outrage putting him in the lead and doesn’t quite know what to do with it except to keep riding this train.
I don’t know him well enough (even via pop culture, obviously none of us here know him in any real sense) to guess at whether or not he’d want/take the job if he somehow (via wizard curse?) managed to win it. I also don’t think that it’ll get anywhere near that far and the real question is how much Bush and Walker will pander to Trump’s anti-immigration/anti-China/anti-everything followers in their attempt to win his share.
He’s a tuning fork set to resonate with the angry white male voters. The louder he sounds, the more the masses roar in response. He’s a butcher tossing red meat to those that want to blame their poor fortune on others or who are deathly afraid of “those people” taking what they believe they earned through moral superiority. He’s a preacher telling his flock that they are the virtuous ones who must hate those who are different than they are. The voters don’t care if you’re wrong, so long as you’re wrong at the top of your lungs. He’s found the formula for rising to the top of a crowded field. When it gets down to the final four, he’s toast. His followers know it and he knows it, but they just don’t care.