Rise of Donald Trump - Republicans in disarray

In 2011, when gasoline prices surged over four dollars a gallon, billionaire Donald Trump, a Republican presidential hopeful in 2012, thought he had a solution. He boasted if he became the president, he would go to Libya, and take all the oil. Otherwise, he won't go at all.
After many more outrageous comments like that he fell by the wayside. Instead Senator John McCain became Barack Obama's challenger in the 2012 election.
Now, as we all know Donald is back again, as a 2016 hopeful for the Republican Party in his tailored suits, waxen hair and the same old big mouth from which only outlandish comments come out. Gone are the hideous looking ties. His strategy is somewhat different this time, and as of last week, he is emerging as a strong candidate and taking the lead with 30 per cent popularity over 16 other Republican hopefuls. Even a couple of months ago, it was assumed that Jeb Bush was going to be the front-runner. Not anymore, Jeb's number, in the latest poll, has gone down to a single digit to 8.0 per cent.
Also, to put to rest, the incessant speculations that he might run as a Third Party candidate, Trump has now signed the GOP Loyalty Pledge which means that he has agreed to run as a Republican Party candidate only. I saw his live news conference on CSPAN last Thursday, where he held up the signed pledge for America to see. Since this agreement is not legally binding, and knowing Trump's record, he can go back on his promise in the blink of an eye. Only a short while ago, during his first debate with the rest of the party candidates, on national television, he had said that he would never sign the Pledge.
He is the type of person who can go back on his words without any qualms about it, and perhaps he thinks what he says or does, shouldn't be challenged. He has this arrogance about him where he dismisses legitimate questions as childish speculations and innuendoes and he has no misgivings in saying it out loud, by making the interlocutor in the audience look foolish.
For as long as I remember, Trump has been a public relations nightmare. A real estate developer, and for the last few years a reality TV show host on NBC called The Apprentice (after last season he got sacked), Trump loves to boast. He had gotten very comfortable in firing people and teaching them business skills. Trump's philosophy is: 'Recruit good people, ask for pay hike with good timing, and invest wisely.' If he thinks with that approach and by spending six hundred million plus of his own money for his campaign, he will win, then I don't know how to counter that argument except to say the government cannot be run like a business institution.   
No one really takes him seriously. So we thought!
There are many conservatives who are like him. But they don't make news. He does because he is filthy rich, a provocateur and controversial person. With his contradictory political views, he has only managed to cause a lot of bewilderment.
'The Donald,' who often refers to himself in the third person, is a quintessential 'American character.' Other than Mughal Emperor Akbar, I don't know of anyone in the ancient past or at present that does that. His greatest eminence is his idiosyncratic character, and most of the times he gets away with it because he is a celebrity with deep pockets.
The Republicans now are very nervous because of all the noise he is making. In 2011, Donald, hungry for media attention, made a big buzz with an outlandish remark that president Obama was not born in the US soil. He started the presidential bid by challenging Obama to produce his birth certificate. Now he is all critical over the Obama healthcare policy, as the monthly premium has already been doubled and the deductible is quite high now.
He said, if elected he is going to get rid of the ObamaCare and introduce something better where everyone can have affordable health insurance. To the struggling and unemployed people with families, such assurances are like music to one's ears. He also pointed out that by signing an executive order is not the way to run a country. America is in bad shape because there is 'no leadership' at the top, according to Donald.
Besides, a lot of the infrastructure like the bridges and roads are decaying and need reconstruction. He is confident that only a builder like him can fix America's broken system.
He doesn't stop there. He thinks the US Army is in bad shape and needs revamping ASAP. To him, the Iran nuclear deal is a disaster. The US is getting killed on trade by China, Japan and Mexico. US owes its foreign investors 1.4 trillion dollars. Once elected, Donald contemplates he will bring all the jobs back to the US shores. Currently, 33 per cent (approximately 46 million) Americans are not in the workforce. He also claims that 50 million people are between welfare and poverty level. He is promising to fix all that.
Donald is very perturbed that the US is doing everything for a lot of the other countries, and not doing enough domestically to safeguard it against foreign threats like Russia and China with nuclear weapons. In his estimation most of the US nuclear weapons do not work.
Donald doesn't wait for his campaigners to do their work, since he does it best. He says his energy is like 'rocket ship' and he has been placed as number one very quickly. He said he was feeling sorry for Jeb Bush after watching him on TV one morning recently. He feels Jeb is 'low-energy' and can't keep up with him. He urged Jeb not to spend 25 million (as it is the buzz) in negative TV campaign against Donald, but to focus on Jeb's positives instead.
Initially, Trump was in murky water by making racist and inappropriate comments about the Mexicans, uttering derogatory and sexist remarks against women and his bizarre views on immigration. Now, he has changed his tune by swearing that he loves the Mexicans and over the years he had employed thousands in his various real estate and other business projects.
He reiterated that he is very much against illegal entry into the US, and will seal off the southern borders if he became president.
He, however, is all for keeping the best foreign brains and talents in the USA, after they graduate from various top-notch American universities. He vouches that he loves what the foreign brains are doing in Silicon Valley, in revolutionising America.
He is most proud that he is running a self-funded campaign and took a jab at all the other candidates including Hillary Clinton, for taking money from the special interest groups, and essentially told America that others are doing what the lobbyists want them to do. Of course, only Donald is an exception! While in Iowa, one lobbyist offered him $5.0 million and he asked the people, who had gathered to hear him, what to do about this offer. He revealed that the prospective voters urged him not to take anyone's money and therefore, he had declined the offer.
With Donald emerging as a very strong candidate, the Republican Party now is in disarray. In the past GOP had done their best to shun Sarah Palin as a possible candidate, and then Donald had popped up with bells on. But he went away when he got no support from the Republican Party. At this point, the party leaders don't know what to do with this clownish figure. The conservatives can't scoff at the poll numbers since Trump is claiming he knows how to fix all of America's problems.  
With the remark that 'America has become the laughingstock of the world,' Donald sort of hit the 'bull's eye.' With US economy still struggling to recover, the question is: are Americans ready for a former real-estate developer to take the reins?
What are the voters thinking? Americans are having a tough time making ends meet. They are tired of doing without things, not being able to go on vacations, and unable to send their kids to colleges. Mainstream America wants things to change right now. Specifically, in inner cities life is mostly made up of crime and violence and people want living standards to improve. At this exact moment Donald has risen from his Trump bandwagon again.  
Some people are naturally swayed by his big talks. He comes across as a knight in shining armour to folks who desperately want their fate to change. These people are ready to believe anyone who can give voice to the hopelessness ones. They want a presidential candidate to make a promise that they can buy a cartful of groceries and feed their children a decent meal. They want a president who will provide them opportunities. The official unemployment rate remains at 5.1 per cent.
The previous dwindling housing market is doing somewhat better, but not still affordable for the young and first-time buyers. A few days ago, I ran into a Latina woman who works in a fast food restaurant and whose kid I used tutor. Her family of four lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Maryland. They were supposed to try their luck in getting a small house that went into foreclosure, and become homeowners. I was told the family lost their bid in an open auction. When I saw the mother, she didn't seem very upset. Then she told me she had heard Donald on TV, and she believes he will build them a house as he will be building many things when he becomes president.
I was at a loss for words, and finally, told her that Fannie Mae, America's biggest home mortgage institute, has programmes to facilitate the first-time buyers. She listened half-heartedly. I got the impression that she is pretty much taken with the idea of Donald building a new home for her family. She informed me that will be less hassle; after all, he is a builder.
I wasn't able to convince her that Trump only builds landmarks -- like the Chicago Tower, penthouse apartments for millionaires in New York City, five star hotels and mega casinos in Las Vegas. It appears Donald has now somehow managed to seduce some of the simple-minded people to get ahead in the poll.
Though Donald is saying that Obama hasn't been able to fulfil his second-term plan to fix the broken system, the political strategists are arguing that it would be catastrophic if they support Donald Trump. It hasn't been an easy ride for Obama with having to finance two wars, the nuclear deal with Iran and fulfilling all the responsibilities at home.
What has Donald got this time but distorted facts and his changing views on issues? He has also changed his position from pro-life concerning abortion. Last time he tried to run his campaign on the basis of unbecoming Obama birthing theory. This time his agenda is somewhat different. If his poll numbers are high, and people support his nomination, then what choice will GOP have but to give him the nomination?
Donald has been divorced three times and this is not going to sit well with the conservatives come election time, provided he gets the party nomination. He hasn't been a very loyal Republican so far. Many in the past had seen that he was in need for some publicity stunts and was having fun with his 15 minutes of fame, but now cannot ignore the current poll.
Trump has zero foreign policy background. His conception of the outside world alone disqualifies him as unsuited for political office. Last Thursday night, in a foreign policy interview conducted by Hugh Hewitt, for his radio show, Donald was unable to answer most of the American foreign policy questions. A report published by The Wall Street Journal read, 'Donald Trump flunks foreign policy quiz.' Donald mistook the 'Iranian military group for the Kurdish people.' Trump got very testy during the interview and dismissed Hewitt when he pressed him to distinguish between Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah. Trump told him that when the time comes he will know about such things more than Mr. Hewitt.
Donald Trump has already said the Chinese are 'enemies,' and he is going to impose 25 per cent tax on Chinese products to scare them enough to come to the negotiating table. Trump prides himself as someone with good business sense. Intimidating and threatening another economic superpower is not going to bring in any result. America needs Chinese goods; he cannot bully others into giving in.
Trump doesn't have the leadership skills to lead America as a superpower. He seems irresponsible and irrational and is not scared of austere consequences. The Republicans have to figure out a way so that he makes a graceful exit. But what if they are not able to?
It appears now that the attention-seeking, self-promoter 'The Donald' with his rantings and ravings, simply will not give up his foray. Ultimately, the conservative voters are not going to be impressed by his madman-like diatribes. Above all, one must not forget that in the deepest sense, Trump is neither a symbol nor an epitome of a true leader of the free world.
The author, a fiction writer, is a columnist.
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