He's a gadfly. With his past record of having been a Democrat and giving money to the Clintons, I couldn't trust him any more than I trust Hillary. He's that "man on a white horse" we've been warned about. He'll say anything to gain attention and then reverse himself the next day. Sound like anyone else you know? I do like the fact that his politically incorrect approach is scaring the hell out of everyone.

Trump reminds me of Perot's campaign. Both attracted a lot of interest for the same reasons. Both have had accomplishments outside of politics which gave them some credibility as they baldly state that the emperor has no clothes, refusing to pander to the evasive "diplomacy" of the Washington establishment and appealing to many common sense objections. But that isn't enough for serious debate, let alone enough to be president. Perot turned out to be a kook and quickly fell out of favor, and Trump isn't much different.

Trump seems to understand almost nothing about most of the politically imposed problems we are suffering under, or the proper political principles of what American government is supposed to be to solve and reverse them. He has yet to affirm the rights and freedom of the individual as the central foundation of the country, urging instead and ability to "make deals".

With an anti-philosophical, unprincipled "pragmatism" he dramatically shoots from the hip, often on topics he hasn't bothered to investigate or think about, sometimes striking a nerve and sometimes off the deep end, as when he recently completely misrepresented and attacked Pamela Geller when she was threatened with terrorist murder for sponsoring a cartoon contest deemed blasphemy by the Islamo fascists. He has inconsistently previously been for amnesty of illegal aliens and is infamous for using eminent domain for removing people from their homes for parking lots for his business. Could that kind of mentality defend property rights against statism?

That kind of mind is no solution to the problems of the country no matter how well he handles politically correct reporters in a campaign of self-assurance that delights those who don't look any deeper than their own amusement.

On the basis of a much narrower success in business he speaks as if he can buy off every problem through the shear drama and loudness of his narcissist personality in the name of "common sense" formed by a hodge podge of the obvious mixed with destructive conventionalism. He arrogantly tells us he "knows all the smart people", and loudly obsesses over making "deals" as the alleged solution to everything -- with no regard for 'deals' for what end purpose and at what cost, or what principles, if any, are held by his "smart people".

Trump's populist appeal as he bashes Washington politicians brings negelcted topics to the front that ought to be discussed and debated, but he doesn't know how to do it himself. He didn't even know how to defend his own position calling the bluff of "McCain the War Hero" and its use for moral intimidation. In the face of establishment rejection and misrepresentation of many of his statements he is only leaving the best of them unanswered as he puts an albatross of public embarrassment around the neck of those who can and who would like to discuss them but who don''t have the public access he does. "A bad argument is worse than none."

He has no more insight and understanding than the pompous blowhard Chris Christy. Both of them are demagogues. This intellectual vacuum only adds to the danger of both the leftist ideologues and the establishment conservatives, who offer nothing but a desire to manage the progressively advancing statism under the mentality of "me too but slower" as their moral response to the collectivist left. Trump is one variety of the man on the white horse in an intellectual vacuum that Ayn Rand warned against.

While I find his messages refreshing, I have a hard time supporting someone who does not seem to have a consistent set of core values.

My perception is that Trump is an opportunist, one who does what is convenient at the moment. If you look at his record over the past 10 years or so, he is now FOR things he railed AGAINST in the past, and vice versa.

I'm starting to think that Trump & Sanders are in the race to make Bush & Clinton seem like the reasonable choices.

Collectively??

I'm in Arizona and attended the Trump "rally" in Phoenix. I thought twice about going because I was concerned about running into "crazies". Little did I know I would be considered one of them simply by attending. The room did have some Trump fans, the curious like me but what struck me the most were the number of working class and small business people. The press jumped all over the immigration issue but Trump has also brought up the outsourcing of jobs. My wife has had her job outsourced to India 3 times in the last 10 years. I am a small painting contractor. I understand both sides of the immigration coin. As a painter I could no longer make a living because the immigrants came in in such huge volumes that they swamped the labor pool. Wages were driven down so low it looked the 1930's depression in the paint store parking lots when the contractors showed up looking for labor. I am not exaggerating. As a business owner it is difficult to compete using American labor. But I still do. As far as amnesty is concerned I think these people are being sold a bill of goods. If they were to become citizens they would immediately expect to make a higher wage. It defeats the purpose of what the big corporations want which is cheap labor. So then the next step would be open borders to insure a free flow of cheap labor and the swamping of the American "culture". McCain has been a huge disappointment and is simply a shill for the big building contractors in this state as well as one of the largest military contractors in the U.S. While keeping these "people" happy keeps some jobs here, many more jobs will be given to people from Mexico and in India and China. I must applaud Trump for bringing these subjects out in the open whether he is a Democrat plant by the Clintons or a somewhat nutty Republican. He does not appear to fear being labeled and really doesn't have much to lose. Anybody else would have been shouted down as racist and shamed into silence. I am sick unto death of political correctness and look forward to some true debate for however a short period it may last.

Empty suit. Big mouth. Looter. Clown.
If there is to be any return to liberty, it won't be due to Trump.
The entire political system and the culture that it rewards must be killed by the sovereign people.

I don't think about him.

Trump is showing us the truth of the saying:
"When Peter talks about Paul, you learn more about Peter than you do about Paul."
The reactions of the {candidates, pundits, talking heads, etc.} to Trump saying {The emperor has no clothes} regarding subjects the elites down want to address or acknowledge is, in my opinion, the best public service he has ever performed to date. For that I thank him for throwing his hat into the ring.

He is just lovely. He is a welcome break from the 20-plus-years of warring conservatives and liberals. They seem to despise him equally. :)

And whether or not they want to admit it...Trump is providing early cover for Republican candidates. The last thing the Republicans need is a candidate who win the primary, but overtime, during the primary-- has lost face nationally.

Trump is a well-needed bull in the RINO china shop.
But I also have a favorable eye on a very few other GOP candidates, and one of them is a woman.
For me it is too early to decide who is the leader of the pack.

I'm waiting to see how he handles front runner status. He has our attention, he now needs to actually put together a presidential campaign.

I have no doubt he knows how to build staff and get things done. Will he do it?

I disagree with Trump on multiple issues, but I like his willingness to take on the establishment GOP and the establishment media, especially with regard to their "sacred cows" (pun intended). His bombastic nature is probably not dignified enough for a president, but I like it.

As I've mentioned on other threads, I can never be accused of being the Donald's biggest cheer leader. That being said, I find him remarkable refreshing. He calls his shots, like it or not, and that's the best we can ask for in a political leader.

He has opened up many topics that no other politicians are too afraid or to ingrained in the system to mention. For this he is a great man. He has changed the landscape and now the usual blather we get will be harder to sell, and thay can't be bad!

I think that the best that he's done is to expose how the conservative message is resonating with the average Republican and how if the Republicans want to be invigorated, they need to come back to conservative principles. We need to go back to our roots if we want to bring this country back to the integrity and strength it once had.

Trump is a typical real estate hustler. Plays fast and loose with valuations and representations. With that said, while he's currently hitting on conservative hot buttons, many of his other positions are decidedly democratic (Universal health care).
The one good thing is that he is bringing up issues that the RINOs in charge of the Republican party would rather be kept quiet and low key (immigration) and forcing candidates to explicitly stake out their RINO or conservative positions.
So, if the establishment wants to run another non-conservative like McCain or Romney (ie. Jeb) I fully expect Trump to play spoiler as a third party option and we'll end up with Hillary.

The Donald appears to be a pure opportunist. . probably amoral,
he is a loose cannon, in my view. -- j
.

I like Trump's straight talk, saying what should be said. However, I do not trust him. He once was quite a supporter of Hillary in what he said at the time. How can you trust someone who was wiling to be bailed out of bankruptcy because the government said he was too big to fail? He made a flippant rmark that he might choose Oprah as a running mate early on, another big Obama supporter. However, Hillary is a definite disaster and Bush is more one world march to the end of the US as we know it.

I'll continue to stand with Rand

Ultimately Mr. Trump can't be trusted as a contender (I think). But what he is doing is showing the mealy mouthed cowardly republicans the right way, and the right platform to do it.

I.E. Donald Trump has latched on to Illegal Immigration being the single biggest problem this country faces (and it is), while the rest of the field is caught in a circle jerk trying to be the first one to grant them amnesty thinking that this will "un-liberal" the liberal illegal aliens and make them vote for us. America wants the illegal immigrants kicked out. They don't want amnesty. They don't want reform. They want every single piece of third world scum kicked out, and Trump is showing the Republican party that this is what the people want.

Secondly, Trump is showing the Republican party that the people are tired of pussy Republicans abasing themselves before the Democrats, thinking that politeness will somehow show the lying Democrat con artists as lying con artists. Americans are responding with enthusiasm when someone finally calls a Spade a Spade... Kicks out liberal News-papers from his event who think that they can lie about him, and then demand to participate as "journalists..." Points out a "journalist's" lies to his face... Americans are loving it that someone is finally standing up and saying "A is A". Now whether he believes it or not is a separate issue. But the fact is that Trump has been walking the walk (in this race), talking the talk, and is so far out ahead of everyone that the Republicans should be kissing his ass, and, more importantly, sitting down to take notes.

The Donald certainly seems to have tapped in a frustrated portion of the voters who are generally pretty quiet. Remember the silent majority? I personally would like to see him shake up the entire establishment.

I like the article freedomforall posted:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

donnie seems to crave attention and has very few specifics about anything ... he is a great side show but unless we want another wanna-be dictator, no thanks

Thanks Galt's Gulch for all the fantastic comments! I personally think that if Donald Trump were elected President (magically). I think he would be the first cartoon character ever elected President! I can't take the guy seriously! But a lot of conservatives seem to love the guy! WTF! I still don't think he's running and I don't think he will be in the race by the time the first republican primary is underway.