To ask if Donald Trump could actually be president again?

[tinkertee]

I've just seen a headline about him now being the front runner for the Republican nomination. Which I assume means it's entirely a possibility that he could then win.

I'm British (English) so I know our current government is a complete embarrassment. But I will never get my head around DT having been president once never mind possibly twice.

How could this happen??

Why would people here prefer Biden over Trump?

Plenty of people needing a stock market recovery

You'd think they could arrange this before he gets in 😬

He’s the least dreadful option?

Yank here. It's very early days in the election. In 2016, a bloke named Ted Cruise won the Republican Iowa primary. You've probably never heard of him because he went on to lose everywhere else.

I've heard of Ted Cruise Texas Republican - left for warmer climates with kids and wife while when large storm hit few years back as Texas grid failed leaving large number of people without power in extremely cold weather - also very pro very limited abortion rights. A run for president went no where.

I'm hoping Trump fizzles out and they get a better candidate but frankly shocked he's got so far as he has.

It would appear that the pro-Trump trolls and shills that infested MN in the run-up to the last two US elections are returning.

Since running for the presidency if convicted's been mentioned many times, there's a great piece here from the NYTImes if anyone's interested:

https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-investigation-conviction.html#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20sets%20very%20few,on%20character%20or%20criminal%20record.

We have 342 million people in the US and Trump and Biden are our choices? Makes me sick at the thought.

I think part of the issue with US politics is you have to be either insanely rich or insanely well-connected to even get off the starting block. You need major money for campaigning, TV ads and media blitzes and that is out of the reach for most ordinary people.

This 100%

Lots probably don’t but those who would prefer Trump are probably the silent majority, like those who were for Brexit. It’s not worth getting into arguments with the vocal and often venomous minority.

I have not read the whole thread.

Currently Trump has a small lead over Biden in national polls. It seems likely he will be the Republican candidate unless one of the others (most likely Haley) gets an unexpectedly good result in one of the early primaries. It then comes down to how independents (i.e. voters not allied to either party) vote. Some surveys suggest that voters think Trump wants revenge and dictatorship - not surprising given some of the things he has said. If that view takes root amongst independents, they are less likely to vote for him.

Putin is losing a lot of men and equipment in Ukraine and being more humiliated there every day it goes on. His best chance at turning that around and conquering Ukraine and stealing all that lovely strategic and agricultural land is to…

(a) distract the world with an even higher-profile conflict elsewhere (I wonder where Hamas got all those weapons 🧐), and
(b) get Trump elected so that America stops supplying Ukraine with weapons.

If it wasn’t all so damn important it’d be fascinating to observe.

With the entirety of Russia and Iran’s intelligence services desperately trying to get Trump elected, it’s difficult to see how he can lose.

The big question is: are most Americans really this gullible?!

I think he will be yes. Strange times we are living in.

Trump has been the Republican front runner for the primaries for many months now, so that is nothing new...

I look at it this way.

In the Iowa caucus, fractionally more than half the very committed members of the Republican party (the ones who were prepared to go out in the evening of a really freezing day) voted for him; that means almost half the Republicans who felt strongly enough about it to vote at all, voted against him.

Of the ones who voted against him, about half have stated they will never vote for Trump again. Ten per cent have actually said they will vote for Biden if Trump is the Republican candidate.

If he gets convicted of any of the 91 crimes of which he is currently accused, almost 30% of all Republicans polled have said they will then not vote for him.

I doubt he will pick up the independent voters he needs to win, and I very much doubt he will get enough Democrats voting for him to make much difference. So he has a whole lot less than half the vote, and may get a considerable drop in the numbers who vote for him even in the ultra-red states. The Democrats may not have enough to win there, but they may well have enough to come very close to doing so.

(There is an astonishing number of flat-out lies about Trump's performance as President on this thread! If I were polite I'd say that people may be mistaken and so on, but actually I think they are simply lies, being told deliberately to boost Trump.)

Oh, and for people saying how much better Sanders would be than Biden because Biden is too old: Biden born 1942, Sanders born 1941, what were we saying about senile old men again? (I have seen nothing to indicate that either of them is senile, and at least they both know what year it is and don't think we might get dragged into WWII if we're not careful, unlike at least one person I could name.)

Those who would prefer Trump are probably the silent majority, like those who were for Brexit. It’s not worth getting into arguments with the vocal and often venomous minority

Wise words, Lilacanemone, though whether they'll be a majority come the election remains to be seen

FWIW Trump wouldn't be my choice either, but we in the UK have also seen political extremists insisting you'd have to be deranged to elect such-and-such, and it must drive them mad that, in the end, you simply can't tell people who to vote for

“Oh, and for people saying how much better Sanders would be than Biden because Biden is too old: Biden born 1942, Sanders born 1941, what were we saying about senile old men again? (I have seen nothing to indicate that either of them is senile”

You were doing ok until you very big whopper 🤣🤣🤣

Honestly, when a country has the choice between an 81 year old with dementia and a deluded orange criminal meglamaniac in his 70s to run the country, you know the world is in trouble. I mean, I know that Boris was an absolute idiot, but these lot pale into comparison. It's amazing though how many politicians, prime ministers and presidents across the world are dodgy as hell. I'd like to think that we'd not tolerate that level of madness.

Yeah true it's amusing how hysterical mumsnetters are about it. Talking about how if he is president he will start a nuclear war 😂 didn't they say the same thing in 2016 and yet we are still here.
I'm not even a trump supporter but I know a lot of people like/vote him just on principal of pissing off the people who hate him

The thing is by now the Democrats and media have lied so much that people even if they dislike Trump are not having it again.

@FrannieSaid much as I'd love your post to be true, none of the polling agrees with you.

I've always thought Putin had something to do with Hamas' attack on Israel and this is now a nice little distraction for him to what he is doing in Ukraine

I'm also somewhat convinced Putin had something to do with the Brexit fiasco.

His arm stretches very far

Polls all cited a "Red Wave" in the midterms, too.

I think it's really sad for Americans that they're once again faced with having to vote for the least worst option. Mind you, many would say we have a similar situation here in the UK. If we want the Tories out then there's only one party who can do it, even if you have to hold your nose as you enter the polling booth to do it.

Agree with most of it. Just not convinced about the last sentence.