Donald Trump is the wildcard that changes the game for Republican presidential rivals
WILDCARD presidential hopeful Donald Trump is a cancer, a demagogue and a jackass — and that’s just what his Republican colleagues are calling him.
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DONALD Trump is a cancer, a demagogue and a jackass — and that’s just what his colleagues are calling him.
But right now, the billionaire is pulling the strings of the US presidential election.
The American presidential race was meant to be a dynastic affair. It was meant to be a battle between Clintons and Bushes, wealthy American names that have both cradled the boons and responsibilities of the presidency before.
However, there’s another big name Americans know very well. Donald Trump’s real estate and reality TV empire seeps into demographics Clintons and Bushes can only dream of.
This week, he was the most googled presidential candidate on both sides of politics.
But just as the billionaire doesn’t hail from their world, he’s not playing by their rules.
American commentators have likened Trump to Australia’s own Clive Palmer.
A piece in The Washington Post — when asking whether other countries had politicians like Trump — nominated Palmer as Australia’s version.
“Clive Palmer, an Australian billionaire, certainly creates Trump-size headlines,” the piece read.
“The similarities between the two go beyond headlines and money, however. For years, Palmer has been accused of using his wealth to influence politics in Australia.”
The pair both talk a lot about their own money and both anger their conservative colleagues.
For his part, Palmer has tried to separate himself from any comparison to Trump by criticising the real estate mogul as being “ignorant and a racist”, adding that the billionaire’s business success doesn’t mean he’s up to the job of president.
“I’d tell him to get out and broaden his horizons,” said Palmer, who has previously claimed his own business nous as a virtue.
Just as Palmer was successful in the early days of his political career at capturing voters, whatever Trump is doing right now is working.
The first set of polling out this week showed Trump well ahead of his Republican rivals, making him an almost definite starter for the first Republican debate on August 6.
The second set of polling was not as favourable but, by that stage, voters had already decided Trump was in the race — certainly something more than the sideshow his opponents wrote him off as.
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Trump stormed into the presidential race in June declaring Mexicans immigrants his target, labelling them rapists and drug traffickers.
Next, he enraged Republicans by declaring former presidential hopeful John McCain was not a war hero because he was a prisoner of war.
Then on Wednesday he niggled his colleagues by reciting fellow Republican Lindsey Graham’s personal telephone number on live television. Graham called Trump a “jackass”.
Trump has got the Republicans terrified. Not because he’s popular, they say. But because they fear he is tarnishing their brand.
Even more terrifying for the Republicans is the idea that he may decide to run as a third-party candidate thus dramatically splitting their vote.
Republicans fear Trump is putting on ice their efforts to broaden the party’s appeal — a necessary move if they stand a chance at winning next year’s election.
The GOP was specifically warned when it lost the last election that the party needed to find a way to capture millions of Hispanic voters in the US.
With Trump signalling plans to tour the Mexican border in coming days, he shows no sign of slowing his alienation of the Hispanic community.
He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican party to perdition if pursued
- Rick Perry
Despite dominating presidential discussion in the past month, Trump is not widely considered a front runner to make it into the White House.
Analysts believe his popularity will decline in coming months. Palmer has suffered the same effect but over a period of years once he had already won a seat in the Parliament.
In any case, the fight Trump has sparked in the GOP will have lasting implications for the presidency.
In the first week of July, the boss of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, is believed to have spent an hour on the phone with Trump, pleading with him to “tone down” his comments about immigration.
Trump has acknowledged the phone call from the NRC chairman occurred, but insists he was congratulatory.
US strategist Karl Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Trump “could become the 2016 version of Missouri Rep Todd Akin, who tarnished the GOP brand in 2012 with an offensive statement about rape”.
“Swing voters were persuaded that every republican believed what Mr Akin said,” Rove wrote.
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry this week dramatically escalated the public Trump-hating, describing his opponent as a “barking carnival”.
“He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican party to perdition if pursued,” Perry declared.
The event was a speech in Washington. Republicans everywhere took notice. Perry was taking the hostility to new heights.
“Let no one be mistaken,” Perry said. “Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.
“It cannot be pacified or ignored, for it will destroy a set of principles that has lifted more people out of poverty than any force in the history of the civilised world — the cause of conservatism.”
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