Donald Trump has officially staked his claim for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination after more than two decades of speculation as to whether hair will get an official White House portrait.
This 2016 GOP race could not get any more entertaining.
Trump will join a GOP field more qualified to tour with Ringling Bros. than hold civic office. According to Real Clear Politics, Trump ranks 9th out of the 12 Republican candidates to formally claim their intent. If he maintains placement in the Top 10, Trump will be able to participate in the August 6th Republican Primary debate in Cleveland.
But, might Trump be an effective candidate for the conservative cause? I mean, he’s a real estate mogul and multi-billionaire. Trump is the Republican dream if you think about it, the closest thing to electing a cache of gold into the White House.
Many Americans, particularly conservatives, still claim the economy and jobs to be one of the most pressing issues today. History has shown us Trump is not good?with money. In fact, he doesn’t like “the B word.” Despite his successes, his value has been an economic roller coaster, partially due to several failed business ventures, like Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka (the Crystal Pepsi of liquor, if you will), and Trump Casinos, which, in 2009, filed for Chapter 11 “b?word” protection for the third time.
American conservatives are all about the success of businesses… and a lot of them claim a passionate love of football. Trump loves football too, enough to kill a moderately successful professional football league. From Salon:
“Trump pressured his fellow owners to move their schedule to the fall in order to compete head to head with the NFL. It was an act of suicide. Ultimately, the USFL staked its future on an antitrust suit against the NFL, which ended with a Pyrrhic victory (a judgment for $3) that finished off the upstart league for good.”
Donald Trump also doesn’t seem appreciative of Chinese imports.
To American conservatives, family values are really important. Hell, family values are an anchor of religious liberty, which is how Republicans can claim marriage equality undermines their heterosexual marriages and affairs. Trump’s current wife is Slovenian supermodel Melania Knauss. She is his third wife. Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, indulged Trump’s libido while The Donald was still married to his first wife, Ivana. I could be wrong, but I don’t think three marriages, one of which being the product of an affair, constitutes family values.
I don’t know, let’s ask Tony Tinderholt, Newt Gingrich, or Dennis Hastert.
But a more imperative threat to American conservatives is ISIS. Believe it or not, Donald Trump made a vague claim that he has a “foolproof” strategy to defeat ISIS but, like an arrogant six-year-old girl on a schoolyard blacktop, he’s not telling. From The Wrap:
“‘All I can tell you it is a foolproof way of winning, and I’m not talking about what some people would say, but it is a foolproof way of winning the war with ISIS,’ he said. ‘And it will be absolutely, 100 percent ?they’ll at minimum come to the table but actually they’ll be defeated very quickly.'”
Despite The Donald’s directness and on-repeat claim regarding the failures of politicians, I speculate his campaign will be about as successful as?Trump: The Game.
But hey, this means Jon Stewart might sticking around a bit longer!
