Hardly, the poll numbers are often quoted, but really they’re just there at the minute to give the news something to talk about. Trump regularly gets 25-30% poll numbers, but that’s from registered, or people who identify as Republican voters, so about 25% of the population overall, so in total Trump has support from about about 8% of the voting public…

And most of the US isn’t paying attention, and won’t until after Iowa.

@nick the danger is he really does win the nomination which is only vited for by Republicans. Then you have the actual election and very many people will not vote Democrat. I don’t think Trump can win but he very well might.

Mere words.

Meanwhile, we welcome our Saudi overlords and turn a blind eye to their human rights abuses.

the danger is he really does win the nomination

Indeed. Paddy Power have him at 9/4 to take the nomination today. I’m entirely conscious that the GOP has had frontrunning loony candidates who have faded to nothing before, and I rather hope he does (Paddy Power have Rubio at 11/8), but he doesn’t seem to be getting knocked back so far.

There was a poll floating around a little while ago suggesting that he (currently) polled ahead of any of the Democratic nominees. It’s possible to imagine him solidifying that lead if (say) some islamist nutjob shoots up Manhattan (or even London).

Point is, at the odds of getting the nomination that you can currently get, there is no way the UK Home Office are going to put him on the We Don’t Want Your Sort Here list – massive diplomatic hostage to fortune. I’m not 100% sure Bashar Assad is on it…

🙂

It’s possible to imagine him solidifying that lead if (say) some islamist nutjob shoots up Manhattan (or even London).

Probably part of his evil master plan, irritate enough people (minorities of course) and eventually one of them will take a Kalashnikov to Times Square………

Then you have the actual election and very many people will not vote Democrat. I don’t think Trump can win but he very well might.

I will lay the Jamby COrbyn defence her and say If i was a democrat i would love him to be running against me as he is so repulsive it will win you many votes. IMHO many loyal GOP [ as you argue about labour ones] will never ever vote for this man so he cannot win.

Ya can’t ban someone from travelling to a country who has different opinions to yours.

Right, so not signed then.

I think we need him to come over here, make your own opinion based on his speeches and actions after that.

…it looks like he has a serious chance of becoming president.

Should this line be in the “rubbish that get repeated so often everyone thinks they are true” thread ?

Ya can’t ban someone from travelling to a country who has different opinions to yours.

Sure you can, the UK does it all the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_banned_from_entering_the_United_Kingdom

He hasn’t broken any Laws though.

Bring him in, listen to him, then make your own mind up.

Yeah we should all keep letting all muslims in without being properly vetted, what’s the problem? What could possibly go wrong?

Ahem:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U-t3GetV_Q[/video]

He hasn’t broken any Laws though.

Bring him in, listen to him, then …

.. arrest him for inciting racial hatred and have him deported. 😀

Signed.

He hasn’t broken any Laws though.

Bring him in, listen to him, then make your own mind up.

Neither have lots of people on that list.

We can already listen to him, via the internet and TV.

the danger is he really does win the nomination which is only vited for by Republicans

I think what those poll numbers really reflect is that Republican voters haven’t made up their minds yet. A couple of things that I would hold in mind. 1. no one remotely like Trump* has ever won a nomination by any major US party in the modern era. 2. In the run up to elections/nominations, is that in reality there too few data points, so I’d give his chances as more than NIL but no more that 20%, and while other people’s mileage will vary on that second number, taking polls at face value is dangerous, and it’s still too early.

* what I mean is that he openly defies his Party, and most of the party are openly against his nomination in the press and so on, much like Sarah Palin

Invite him on the basis that he has to see Paxman and nothing will be off limits. The Paxman interview is to be first item on his itinerary.

I would pay good money to watch that.

He comes here all the time, flies into Aberdeen on his suitable subtle plane.

I’m of the opinion you let these idiots come and then show them that their views are just wrong.

He won’t be US President, no chance.

sandwich:

The Paxman interview is to be first item on his itinerary.

followed by Nicky Clarke…

Rachel

Well the petition now has the 100,000 signatures required to be considered for debate in parliament.

It took less than 24 hours! 😯

considered for debate in parliament.

considered for and then rejected I would imagine. We need to understand that Trump may well use this petition for even more publicity. He’s already said in responce to the coevrage that he will run as an idependent if necessary as 68% of his supprters have said they will continue to back him.

They do have to give a reason why it is rejected and that will be interesting to see in itself. It might actually be better for the gov to let this run its course.

Rachel

Attack the words, not the man.

If these views are proving popular, it’s nothing to do with Trump. It’s because society has continued to let these feelings fester unchecked (or perhaps even promoted).

He’s already said in responce to the coevrage that he will run as an idependent if necessary as 68% of his supprters have said they will continue to back him.

68% of the 25-30% of the republicans that have already backed him, is an even smaller percentage of the US voting public. He’d have to run as an Independent, as he’s unlikely to win the nomination for the Republican party if he keeps on talking about them like he does.

but he would importantly take voters from the nominated Republican candidate (who might well turn out to be worse than Trump!) leaving an advantage to Sanders. Excellent.

Rachel

He has threatened to run as an independent.

This will split the GOP vote and ensure Hills gets it.

I see there’s a bit of a campaign afoot to strip him of his honorary degree from RGU. That seems like a good idea to me

(did make me go back through our honorary grads to see if we had anyone embarassing; I have no idea who practically all of them are, except we seem to have given one to Turok: Dinosaur Hunter)

If these views are proving popular, it’s nothing to do with Trump.

Indeed that Hitler fella and the stalin fella and the fella Mao were insignificant bit part players in the annals of history where we all agree it had nothing to do with them.

Its a bit of both re whether it is him or these views actually exist but he cannot abdicate all responsibility from what he says by claiming it has nothing to do with him I think Putin does that and pretends to just “follow” the people rather than “lead/Manipulate” them

Don’t worry the Film Actors Guild is on it:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-president-matt-damon-822866

Isn’t the scary question (apol if covered above), why does Trump and his views hold appeal. What has happened to the segment of voters who swallow and love this stuff?

Scary…

It’s good that it’s passed the 100,000 mark as the gov will now have to make a more substantial response than if it had only made 10,000.

What exactly the response will entail remains to be seen.

What has happened to the segment of voters who swallow and love this stuff?

at best, the segment of voters that have said they’ll vote for Trump is about 19 million out of total voter population of 235 million. (8% of total)

‘Bout the same percentage* who think the moon landings were faked. 🙂

* The venn of these two groups probably overlaps quite a bit…

Say he gets banned from entering the UK, and then ends up as the US president. What then?

Isn’t the scary question (apol if covered above), why does Trump and his views hold appeal. What has happened to the segment of voters who swallow and love this stuff?

All these so called ‘Mavericks’ in any political system do is shine a light on the failure of mainsteam politics, and disillusionment with the establishment. Same as Farage over here. People feel unrepresented by an aloof elite, which looks after its own, and ignores the people. So they get enthusiastic about someone in an ‘anyone but the usual lot’ sort of way, and they ride high in the polls.

This rarely translates to actual electoral votes. Ask Nigel. Certainly not enough to give them even a sniff of power anyway. Thankfully

People feel unrepresented by an aloof elite, which looks after its own, and ignores the people. So they get enthusiastic about someone in an ‘anyone but the usual lot’ sort of way, and they ride high in the polls.

How interesting the mavericks are so establishment and not at all outsiders or radical. Basically some folk are thick gobby racists and they like thick gobby racists as they are “telling it like it is”

I dont think they have mass appeal at all and I think a higher % are revulsed by them than attracted – even within the GOP in his case

Say he gets banned from entering the UK, and then ends up as the US president. What then?

I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

That chain of events is about as likely as him getting banned from the US and becoming UK Prime Minister.

People feel unrepresented by an aloof elite, which looks after its own, and ignores the people.

I don’t entirely understand why such people would vote Republican in the first place.

Must be an odd position to be condemning Obama for trying to set up basic social healthcare whilst complaining the government does nothing for the people.

Perhaps Trump is more clever than we are giving him credit for….

Instead of the debate being about US gun law which is surely the nub of the problem?

We are talking about 2 almost surely hypothetical situations….

binners – Member

People feel unrepresented by an aloof elite

So they’re going to vote for multi-millionaire lucky sperm who based his success on a “small loan” of a million dollars from daddy? That’s getting back to the grass roots, right enough.

no we are going to vote for the privately educated ex broker millionaire who has been a politician for the last 22 years who has a foreign EU wife and he will save us from the westminster elite establishment…he is such an outsider he even goes to the pub and he hates PC.

Bingo 😀