is it really possible that Donald trump could be president?????

[Bishopsbuddy]

I have zero understanding of American politics and wondered could some one give me an idiots explanation pls. Could trump really win???

Yes. The Pope is going to the border in Mexico. Trump said that "the Pope is a very political person". The Pope is all for the global warming stuff which is quite strange. He is probably in a camp against Trump.

48 hours before the primary in South Carolina, the Pope says "Trump is not Christian".

It will backfire and help Trump win by an even larger margin.

Correction, the Pope doesn't name Trump, in a similar way to how George W Bush and Jeb's mother didn't name Trump, the Pope implies and suggests it by his comments.

Donald J Trump fires back in true Trump style.

"Donald J. Trump Response to the Pope

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story - he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation.

For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant."

www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-response-to-the-pope

Trump says outlier poll that placed him second to Cruz waa "a Murdoch hit".

"Donald Trump says 'phony' WSJ poll 'a Rupert Murdoch hit'

Donald Trump hasn't taken kindly to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll that put him in second place for the first time this primary season.

"That phony Wall Street Journal poll that came out yesterday was, in my opinion, it was a fix....It was a Rupert Murdoch hit. It was just a Rupert Murdoch hit," Trump told SiriusXM's Breitbart News Daily on Thursday.

The poll, which shows Trump two points behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz among Republican primary voters, deviates significantly from other recent national polls that give Trump a commanding lead over the rest of the field. Polls from CBS News, Quinnipiac and USA Today/Suffolk conducted within the last week give Trump between a 15 to 20 points lead.

money.cnn.com/2016/02/18/media/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-wall-street-journal-poll/index.html

The poll came 3 days before the South Carolina primary.

I wonder if the the pope's rebuke will give Trump pause for thought? There are a lot of Catholics in the US, so I can't see how it won't hurt him.

Its an astounding intervention but its not as though the Pope does this daily, or even annually, so he won't have done it lightly and he must've thought it was necessary.

I guess Donald Trump will be trying very hard to get primate of The Episcopal Church to say the opposite. I'd switch my phone off, if I were him..!

He can probably wave goodbye to the Hispanic vote. The fact that Trump isn't even prepared to contemplate the possibility that there could be a smidgen of truth in what the Pope says demonstrates Trump's arrogance.

I don't think he'll be counting on the Irish, Italian, German, Polish and Croatian catholic votes either.
Maybe those are all more likely to be democrat anyway? But still even if 1 in 10 might vote republican, he's just reduced it to 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 should he get the nomination.

I'd find it very hard for a Christian leader to justify and support Trump, but then so many of Republican policies. None are particularly welcoming to immigrants, support for the less fortunate and so on. Not to mention the arms issue.

This is interesting. Its a probability website, sort fo like bettign odds but without the distortion of the bookmakers risk-spreading.
fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-pope-is-way-more-popular-than-donald-trump/

If you can't be bothered reading it, it says that about half of Catholics vote Republican, their states are generally declared later in the process and they should be considered the swing voters.

I actually felt a bit sorry for Trump for a minute yesterday. No one wants to be called out by the Pope for bad behaviour, even if you aren't even Christian never mind catholic. However, my sympathy evaporated quickly when Trump decided to argue back telling the Pope what is and isn't his job.

Of course the issue for Catholics (or rather the Catholic Church) and Democrats it's abortion (mainly). And many tend to focus on that, I think, when voting Republican.
Which is why DT has cleverly switched stance on that issue.

Having said that, many Catholics reconcile abortion as being a personal issue and choice.
Whereas treatment of immigrants is a definitive societal issue.

Rubio was very good in reply to the Pope. He didn't defend Trump by name, but he said that the Vatican has very high walls and they control anyone who goes in there and that the United States is the most generous country in the world for immigration, taking 1 million refugees a year.

Rubio is Establishment, but he is a good statesman (not as good as Trump but still good).

On the 28 redcated pages, Trump said that he would open the 28 pages on Hannity on Fox last night. The panic in top circles must be incredible. They want to stop Trump.

A Catholic priest does a bad job of defending the Pope's comments on Hannity on Fox last night, together with contributions from a baptist and from Jerry Falwell Jr

The Vatican walls analogy is a very poor one. The point is that the Catholic church nowadays is absolutely not about keeping people out and excluding people because of where they come from.

The vatican comparison is not comparing like with like. The RC church operates all over the world without barriers, with full access to anyone who wants it whereas the Vatican is just the HQ.

The Pope was wrong, of course, as DT is very keen on building bridges... with Putin.

Simon Jenkins weighs in on the Pope Trump thing.

"The pope should beware of criticising Trump. The church has its own walls and damnations

You could hear the cheering. Pope Francis slams Donald Trump. Build bridges not walls, he says. Man of God humiliates demagogue as “not a Christian”. So perhaps America’s 70 million Catholics will not vote for him after all. That should see off Trump and all his types."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/19/pope-francis-beware-criticising-donald-trump-democracy-catholic-church

"See off .. Trump types?"

Fat chance! The Trumpsters, the Trumpites are wreaking havoc among the establishment.

"They dislike "politicians" ... They love his brash style ... They want to overthrow "the establishment," be it Republican or Democratic.

They're Donald Trump voters"

Trump 2016!

Former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan weighs in on what Trump means and how enormous the significance of the Trump phenomenon is.

"EXCLUSIVE– Pat Buchanan: Donald Trump’s Rise Is Rejection of a Quarter Century of Bush Republicanism
...
“America’s establishment has failed America,” Buchanan said, “The single clearest message in the presidential campaign of 2015-2016 is that the American people would like to cleanse our capital city of its ruling class.”
...
Trump repudiated all three pillars of Republican globalism: namely, military adventurism, immigration multiculturalism, and trade globalism.
...
Trump has surged in the polls with his campaign platform that rejects the Bush “isms” of military adventurism, trade globalism, and migration multiculturalism"

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/18/exclusive-pat-buchanan-donald-trumps-rise-is-rejection-of-a-quarter-century-of-bush-republicanism/

This looks like the return of America and the takedown of the globalists. It will affect politically correct political classes all across Europe.

It looks like it could spell the end of the globalists' climate change agenda. I don't think the Pope will like it.

"Why is Pope Francis obsessed with climate change?
...
The aim of reaching a viable, realistic global agreement for the first time since the Kyoto Protocol is optimistic, but one which the Pope thinks is possible. We're going to have to wait and see – but we can't wait too long."

www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2015/09/why-pope-francis-obsessed-climate-change

I though the pope overstepped the line with his comments. Get your own house in order before you start throwing stones. How many women and non Christians are welcomed to reside in the Vatican? The U.S. has a problem with illegal immigration and it is a huge problem. It disproportionately affect the poor people already here in the US. I don't hear the pope standing up for them.

Also to attack someone saying they are not Christian is uncalled for. Bush was right when he said trumps Christianity was between him and God. It's the first thing I've agreed with Jeb Bush on!

You are right, Want2, the globalists are in desperate straits, they need all the help they can get to stop Trump. The Pope's comments won't hurt trump in South carolina because they are mainly evangelicals there. But my guess is that the Pope will have to come out again against Trump when we get to Florida.

Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser, says that he knows lots of the Establishment and drinks and eats with them "and laughs at them" and they are all saying that they have ditched jeb and are moving to Rubio.

I shouldn't think that the Pope will lower himself to speak directly about Trump again. Its surprising that he did it at all.

Stone is worried about Trump in Nevada. Apparently 7 out of 10 voters on the Republican side are Mormons and are mainly for Rubio and the Establishment in Nevada are behind Rubio.

Stone says that the Establishment will not give up the ghost and he expects things may go to a "contested convention" and they may bring Romney back in some Rubio-Romney package. Stone says it is not over until Trump puts his hand on the Bible and swears the oath for the Presidency.

Trump 2016!

'I shouldn't think that the Pope will lower himself to speak directly about Trump again. Its surprising that he did it at all.'

I would put money on it that the Pope will be back. He has to, the globalists need his help.

If illegal immigrants were legalised wouldn't it help the economy? Illegal immigrants want to work, or they wouldn't be in the US. It seems there's plenty of work after all.

But I agree thr Pope should know better and stay out of commenting on electoral candidates. He tried, but it certainly didn't come out right.