Donald Trump Is Just Messing With Republicans to Help Out Hillary

Donald Trump has hijacked the Republican Party’s conservative base. Fox News and the other billionaires funding Trump’s GOP opponents can’t do anything to stop him. The more outrageous Trump gets, the more popular he becomes. After insinuating that Fox News personality and Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly was hard on...

By Luther Campbell

August 18, 2015

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "19274298",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17482312",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482310",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482313",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Donald Trump has hijacked the Republican Party’s conservative base. Fox News and the other billionaires funding Trump’s GOP opponents can’t do anything to stop him. The more outrageous Trump gets, the more popular he becomes.

After insinuating that Fox News personality and Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly was hard on him because she was menstruating, Trump’s lead in the polls jumped from 21 percent to 32 percent, according to a Morning Consult survey. Last week, a CNN/ORC poll had him taking first place in Iowa with 22 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio didn’t even crack the top five. Another survey has Trump leading the Republican field with 30 percent.

Had Trump not made racist comments about Mexicans, he could have had a real shot at the presidency. His most positive attribute is that he’s not tied to special interests that dump big money into super PACs. Unlike Rubio and Bush, who need sugar daddies like auto-dealership magnate Norman Braman and health-care executive Mike Fernandez, Trump is his own sugar daddy.
He also has the national name recognition that others have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain. For instance, every voter in South Carolina knows Lindsey Graham. But the rest of the country didn’t know who the hell he was until Trump blasted his personal cell phone number on Twitter. Trump has to spend only a fraction of his wealth.

And for the past seven years, NBC has essentially given him free advertising as the star of one of the most popular reality shows on television, The Apprentice.

Name recognition essentially helped me capture 11 percent of the vote in the 2011 Miami-Dade mayoral election with only $15,000. Imagine what Trump can accomplish with a few million bucks.

But I don’t buy that he wants to be president. He stands to lose so much money if he becomes commander in chief. He doesn’t have time to screw around doing a thankless, $450,000-a-year job. He’s just messing with the Republican Party and its base, which is desperate for a hero to turn back the clock on the past eight years of Obama.

Everybody knows Trump is down with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Miami New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.