So what do you Brits make of Trump ?

[makerandmodder]

But yes, there is an ugly tone to much of this violence and it is worrying that Trump is not distancing himself from it. But over the next month or so he is going probably to move to the centre and sound less frightening than at the start of his campaign.

The issue with that, though, is that the violence will always be under the surface, a not-so-subtle backdrop to everything he says. That does not bode well for either our or his future because if he goes all emollient and gentle, his supporters will then (rightly) claim that he too has betrayed them, and disillusionment with the process will be complete.

Things can only get worse, it would appear.

[fred41]

The latest 24 HR news cycle is Obama claiming foreign leaders are "rattled" about the prospect of a Trump presidency. Trump's predictable response is essentially 'hell yah'
I can only hope Obama stops the pro-Trump rhetoric

I'm not sure how he would do that, considering that the core of Trumps supporters hate Obama as much as Clinton. The President has excellent favorability numbers, but the country at this moment in time is very much polarized...hell, it seems like a large portion of the globe is. Perhaps (hopefully) this is all just a hiccup and here at home we are heading for a one term presidency for whoever wins and both parties start off with a clean slate and...uhmmm...probably not...
...I'm probably just gonna retire next year, get a dog or two and head up into the woods to become a hermit.

[trish]

I hope you get a cabin with wifi. Otherwise I'll miss you.

[Ginamax]

We think he is a dick head !!!

[fred41]

I hope you get a cabin with wifi. Otherwise I'll miss you.

Thank you Trishie...but I could never 'rough it' without hi speed internet and giant flat screen television...Thai food's gonna be tough though.

[Stavros]

The issue with that, though, is that the violence will always be under the surface, a not-so-subtle backdrop to everything he says. That does not bode well for either our or his future because if he goes all emollient and gentle, his supporters will then (rightly) claim that he too has betrayed them, and disillusionment with the process will be complete.

Things can only get worse, it would appear.

Not so sure about your last comment. At the moment, Trump is trying to get the Republican party to put up most of the money for his Presidential campaign, but according to the New York Times (a hostile source), Trump has a shambolic organization that appears to be incapable of mounting an effective simultaneous nationwide campaign which a General Election requires. I can imagine a scenario in which the Republican Party establishment -the same one derided so often by Mr Trump- will negotiate a deal -and Trump is the man for deals- which trade money and organization for, shall we say, 'clarification' on policies, or 'Positions' as they are called on Trump's website.

This ought not to be a surprise because most Presidents enter office with an agenda they cannot hope to fulfill in its entirety. Whatever agenda George W. Bush had when he entered the White House in 2001 was thrown out the window because of September's events. Obama entered office in 2009 faced with the most serious financial crisis in the US since 1928 and in spite of his commitment, Guantanamo is still functioning, even if that is not entirely his fault. And while I agree that Trump failing to get his headline policies through Congress is predictable, this does, again raise the question of what happens when/if Trump fails. If the US electorate decide there has to be a way to reform Congress if that is seen as the main choking point for real policy-making, how will they address this? How does one reform an institution from the Centre when so much of it is controlled by individual states?

In the UK as in the US, anyone can stand on a platform and make rousing speeches about change, but most political scientists will the tell you real change only takes place at the margins. And I suspect post_Trump most enthusiasts for change will retreat from the arena disillusioned, and the militants who remain will be the same ones who are there now making all the noise.

A Trump Presidency may have quite a different tone from previous ones, but how much of the agenda we know about now would reach the statute books?

[Stavros]

Are there any limits to the talents and clairvoyance of Donald Trump? This is what he said the other day about Brexit:
“Our friends in Britain recently voted to take back control of their economy, politics and borders,” he said. “I was on the right side of that issue, as you know, with the people - I was there, I said it was going to happen, I felt it..."

-Mind you, he also said this:
“Globalisation has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very wealthy. But it has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7108256.html

Something tells me that if he meets Boris Johnson, born a few miles away in the same city (but not at the same time) only one of them will be left standing, as each believes themselves to be possessed of almost unnatural talents of insight and political skill. One only hopes they will meet as losers in a green room, far far away.

[martin48]

Something tells me that if he meets Boris Johnson, born a few miles away in the same city (but not at the same time) only one of them will be left standing, as each believes themselves to be possessed of almost unnatural talents of insight and political skill. One only hopes they will meet as losers in a green room, far far away.

Not so certain, if this street art is to be believed.

[Stavros]

After the revelation yesterday that Mrs Trump appeared to have used in her speech the same words and phrases used by Michelle Obama in her Convention speech in 2008, it has emerged that another original source has been mined for its relevance. As the New Yorker quoted-
“The world outside our borders is a dark place, a scary place,” Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL, explained. “America is the light.”

it emerges that this is a modified version of a line from the film Gladiator-
"I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light."

One wonders what will the next rifled quote be?

[flabbybody]

We think he is a dick head !!!

This has never precluded someone from winning an election