Trump is destroying his competition. At a rally in Mobile, Alabama, a crowd of 30,000 gathered to hear the real estate tycoon speak. The only other candidate getting similar crowds is the Socialist seeking the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders.
The polls are putting Trump at the top of the Republican pack and he continues to climb. His closest rival is Jeb Bush, but Bush is in a distant second place. Mr. Trump has been able to hold onto his top spot despite constant attacks by rivals and people in the media.
Most if not all of his success can be credited to his personality. He speaks bluntly and isn’t afraid to be politically incorrect. His supporters love his Washington outsider attitude.
There are several kinds of voters who support Trump. Those who have lost their jobs to outsourcing are likely to support him. He has promised to take jobs back from places like China and Mexico. This makes him somewhat of a hero to the portion of Americans that have had their jobs moved outside the U.S.
Another type of Trump supporter are those who have had enough of boring politics. Mr. Trump may be a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. He’s a great entertainer and he’s bringing those skills to politics. As previously mentioned, he has no regard for political correctness, which scores him points with some voters.
I would say the section of voters most opposed to Donald are hardcore conservatives. They see him as a fake Republican. Some years ago, Trump said that he “probably identifies more as a democrat…” which has upset a lot of conservatives. They also resent him because he’s drawing all of the attention away from the “real” conservatives.
Of course, liberals dislike the billionaire’s as well. Controversial comments he’s made on immigration and other issues have been relentlessly criticized by liberals and others. It seems as though all of the criticism is only fueling the Trump fire.
There’s still a lot of time before a nominee is selected. A lot of things could change in that time. But for now, Trump is doing really well and shows no signs of stopping. Another point to consider is how sustained his lead over his rivals has been.
The GOP might want to pick Trump just so they can get a Republican in the White House. Trump has already hinted that if he fails to grab the nomination, that he’ll run as a third-party candidate.
We’ll have to wait and see, but if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. Is that a good thing? Well, let’s talk about that another time.
[Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr]
[Editor's note: the author of this post is not endorsing Trump for president. The political views of this author are far from those of Trump's, this article is purely a prediction based on current trends.]