How is Trump different from other Republicans?

Yes. In the past Trump has espoused almost Democratic, liberal positions on social issues.

A major difference is that Trump is not a career politician. Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign is his first foray into personally running for a political position.

Any other experience he has with government comes from being a business owner and a citizen, i.e., dealing with laws, voting, pulling permits for construction, campaign donations and so on. There is no indication he has made any formal study of politics or has done any legwork in somebody else’s campaign.

Trumps positions and policies during the primaries were noticeably different than the smaller government conservatives in the Republican Party. Now that he has to navigate the waters of the general election I suspect many of his positions and policies will change to cater to the moderates and independents who will be the deciding factor next November.

And it won’t be Trump who is to blame for his every changing stances, the Republican Party as a whole is so fractured at this moment it is near impossible to get a clear view as to what the Republican party firm political views are going forward. Revisit this question after the Convention when I suspect it will be Trump that defines the Party going forward.

@Yetanotheruser – So, his style of campaigning is different, as well as his background.

@Cruiser: “Trumps positions and policies during the primaries were noticeably different than the smaller government conservatives in the Republican Party.”

But he’s NOT completely off the charts regarding Republican positions, correct? The amount of attention he’s receiving, one would assume that he’s presenting something radically different than any flavor of Republican has.

^ EDIT: “NOT”

The amount of attention he is receiving at this time is not unusual for a “presumptive” party candidate. However, the amount of attention he received prior to and during the primary process was unusual. One of his strong skills in business is that of branding. It started back around 1974, when he was ” branded” as Donald Trump, powerful business magnate. This brand morphed through the years to Donald Trump, powerful tabloid headliner, then to Donald Trump, powerful reality-show personally.

A few months before the primary season began in earnest, he began calling Fox “News” programs, morphing the brand once more into Donald Trump, powerful presidential candidate.

Trump is proof that republican pop has finally eaten itself.

Other candidates only allow a well formed hypothesis about the matter.

@DoNotKnowMuch My answer to your second question would be depends on what day of the month you are referring to. Donald has 180 on a number of statements that have ricocheted back and forth across the Republican Party positions. One of the major complaints I have heard is the Donalds positions are more closely aligned with many of the positions of Hillary that they say Trump should have run as a Democrat. Like I said earlier I expect Trumps positions to be fine tuned greatly in the coming weeks especially after his meeting with Paul Ryan on Thursday whose own views are much more moderate than much of the Party would like them to be. Stay tuned as Trump and Ryan will redefine the Republican Party and it should be much stronger because of it.

@Cruiser: “One of the major complaints I have heard is the Donalds positions are more closely aligned with many of the positions of Hillary that they say Trump should have run as a Democrat.”

On the one hand, you have this perspective. Yet, here and other places online, discussing Trump could mean comparisons to Hitler or severe fear-mongering. This election, we are told, is so dangerous due to the threat of Trump.

I think the major problem many people have with Trump is that he is a loose cannon with no sense of diplomacy and no one knows really what his positions or actions will be.

He is completely Isolated from the box containing the Republican machine. He owes no one anything at all, and is absolutely beyond the control of anybody. Now these might be considered admirable traits in someone of sound judgement and even temperament. Just try to include the words sound judgement and even temperament in a sentence describing Trump!

@DoNotKnowMuch __This election, we are told, is so dangerous due to the threat of Trump.__

Therein lies the problem….so we are told. What is this great danger? Says who??

All these experts have been dead wrong about Trump from day one and the more he proved them wrong the more certain they were he would fail. Time to take notice that “they” have been wrong all this time and foolishly so.

I primarily watch the morning news now just to be entertained by “they who have been so wrong” eat copious amounts of humble pie. I say this not because I am a fan of Trumps I am not and I am not a Republican….I am a firm independent as right now neither party will get my vote.

@stanleybmanly: “He is completely Isolated from the box containing the Republican machine. He owes no one anything at all, and is absolutely beyond the control is of anybody.”

If Trump were elected, what type of things could he possibly do that are so dangerous? There are limits of the power of the executive branch. Maybe you could elaborate on what type of things he seems likely to do.

@DoNotKnowMuch: “Therein lies the problem….so we are told. What is this great danger? Says who??”

I don’t really consume mainstream media, but I do monitor it (online). The media has spent this entire election cycle first building Trump up (at the expense of Sanders), and now attempting to tear him down.

I’m an independent who supports Sanders and will not be voting for Clinton in the general. I’ve been told that this year is particularly scary and that writing in Sanders will be essentially a vote for Trump, which is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen short of apocalypse. But I’m trying to figure out what it is exactly that makes Trump such a unique case.

I’ve never seen a candidate be so openly and shamelessly bigoted. I’m sure plenty of other Republicans are racist but at least they seem to have enough self-awareness to know that they should hide it.

Does it matter? He’s going to win either way. His ratings keep going up because of the millions of dollars in free advertising from MSNBC, and CNN. They need to change their names to the Trump channel. I don’t think they dislike him at all. They are just bashing him on one side so they can have someone else come aboard and talk about why they think him so great.

The one big difference is he really hasn’t got a clue on how to run a country, but he will accept any loser willing to come his way. Like the way he is giving Chris Christie the job of Lead of his transition team. It was going to be his son-in-law, until Chris Christie sent his son-in-laws father off to jail for tax evasion.

@stanleybmanly :: “He is completely Isolated from the box containing the Republican machine. He owes no one anything at all, and is absolutely beyond the control is of anybody.”

He has already backpedaled on the whole self funding thing. He hired a guy to do his fundraising. The election is probably going to cost upwards of a billion and it seems like he has no interest in spending that. I’m not even sure he could since his assets aren’t liquid and he seems to have put what he considers the value of his “Brand” into the 11 billion figure.

@DoNotKnowMuch the obvious pitfall concerning Trump is that he is so readily eager to run his mouth and hurl insults with little regard for consequences. He claims to be a great negotiator. But as I said before try to imagine a portrait of Trump with the caption “statesman” anywhere near it. The entire world regards the man as a tasteless joke and marvel at us for being the fools we appear. Now of course he will have advisors to help him shoulder the load. He is already delegating responsibilities to-wait for it- Ben Carson & Sarah Palin. I tell you the truth. Even though the man’s election would be an unmitigated catastrophe, the image of the Trump standing in front of the Presidential seal sends me into fits of laughter.

@johnpowell But isn’t that billion the total spent for all of the combined election expenses? There are hundreds of offices and candidates across the country included in that figure.

Not very complicated.

He is not beholden to the party, or the system as a whole either.

Everything he believes, proposes, wishes for the public, his manner, his chosen mode of speech, all of these things are because of this fact.

This is why the entire establishment (beltway insiders, the media, probably you as well are terrified). “We can’t manipulate this one they way we’re accustomed to, FUCK.”

You claimed to have wanted change,

Hopefully here it finally comes.

Because he is the ring leader of a massive circus show. The rest of the Republicans are at least moderately articulate. Trump is delusional and crazy.

@NerdyKeith: ” Trump is delusional and crazy.”

And Cruz and others aren’t?

@DoNotKnowMuch Oh no they are crazy too. Trump is worse though, plus he’s less honest.

Interestingly, Trump has a saner and more correct view of government finance and macroeconomics than 99% of right-wingers ever

His foreign policies however are not sane and quite frankly childish.

@NerdyKeith I will give you a bit of a pass that you do not live here BUTT __“Oh no they are crazy too. Trump is worse though, plus he’s less honest.”__

Tells me you are another helpless victim of the talking points headlines….IMO no one is less honest than the media and the corporate monies that feed them. They have and will spoon feed you anything to elicit that very response from you and all the other gullible readers of their garbage that is only written to sell more ads at your expense. You can still choose between the blue or red pill….it’s not too late…

Original thoughts are at an all time low here

Trumps positions are whatever it takes to get a certain group to back him. He has not positions other than those it takes to get what he wants.

Well, for now at least, he’s a winner

@Cruiser Regardless to where I live, US politics do affect the rest of the world. Particularly when it comes to foreign policies. My main problem with Trump is the fact that he has no business in politics. He’s not a politician, he’s a reality tv personality.

I’m not helpless victim of any “talking point headlines” and I am very well aware that many news outlets from all spectrums have their share of dishonesty and tendency to over exaggerate many topics.

My opinion on Trump is actually based on the televised interviews or press conferences I have seen of him. That way I form an opinion based on him and the words from his mouth. I don’t need to take the word from any tabloid (be it Fox News or the Huffington Post).

And don’t get me started with this piece of footage. Just unbelievable

@NerdyKeith and @Cruiser – The intent of this thread wasn’t necessarily to discuss the pros and cons of Trump. Rather, I’m attempting to figure out why he is considered (or presented in the media) as such a threat or unique case.

So far, it’s been stated that:

- He is less polished and has a different style of speaking than many Republicans.
– He is more open to speaking candidly about his views concerning immigrants than some Republicans.

This still doesn’t seem to fit the “Trump = unique threat” model that is presented.

@DoNotKnowMuch Well the fact that he’s making threats to build a wall between the US and Mexico is pretty out there. George W Bush wouldn’t have even tried to claim such a thing.

^ Many candidates support this to varying degrees. Clinton has voted for walls/fences in the past. People laugh about it, but it’s not unheard of here in the U.S. by any means. Cruz supports similar measures.

@NerdyKeith

You call Trump’s (ill conceived) proposal to build a border wall a threat.

Is anyone in Flutherland able to talk about Trump without their bias sticking out?

@NerdyKeith I would argue that a good portion of our politicians on the local, state and Federal level have no business being in politics. Take a very close look at the state of affairs of our country and you will see the results of what happens when you elect a junior senator as commander in chief.

No the sky will not fall in my or your country if Donald is elected and I can say the same for Hillary. We have an arm of the Government called Congress that will see to it that things will run just fine with either person as Commander in Chief. Can’t say the same if Bernie somehow gets elected or Cruz for that matter.

Trump is not a Republican, in that he’s not beholden to the party for his success or failure.

That’s arguably what’s wrong with the American political system. We no longer have candidates for office, we have celebrity spokespersons chosen by the party.

Bill Clinton, Barak Obama and Donald Trump have seen great success by springing on the national political stage as relative unknowns (notice I said “political” stage).

I think it’s unfortunate that Bloomberg was too hesitant to run as an independent. He is exactly what the American people are casting about for.

We’ve had other Presidents with big egos, but Trump is so breathtaking a megalomaniac that we have no precedent. His life, including this campaign, plays like a cheap high school production of a parody on Citizen Kane The very fact of his rise to such prominence is stark commentary on the depth of discernment in millions of my fellow citizens. I consider myself a cynic, but maybe I’m wrong. Otherwise why am I always so surprised and disappointed at mass eruptions of stupidity? But I can’t think about it too much, because I break out laughing at inappropriate moments. When you think about it, there’s something outrageously funny in the undisputed monument to bad taste being enshrined as President, and the very thought has me spitting wheaties across the breakfast table. In the end, when it comes to such matters, one must seek solace from reflections of great minds on these topics. And it was H L Mencken who noted that “No one ever lost money through underestimating the taste of the American public.”

I don’t think anyone is going to change your mind about your premise so I don’t see much point in discussing it further. Many of the Republicans are terrible in their obstructionism and narrow-mindedness, but Trump is sui generis in knowing nothing about government, knowing nothing about economics or foreign policy and bragging about his racism, sexism and xenophobia. If you think he and Clinton will damage America equally as “leaders of the free world” I wonder what you’ve been smoking.

But hey – you cling to your ideas. Peace out!

@janbb: “I don’t think anyone is going to change your mind about your premise so I don’t see much point in discussing it further.”

You’d be surprised. However, if nobody is willing to even discuss the issue, I suspect we can all just talk about cookies or something.

@janbb: “If you think he and Clinton will damage America equally as “leaders of the free world” I wonder what you’ve been smoking.”

I think you may have missed some part of the conversation – or imagined it. I’m not even sure what you’re even proposing here. Are you claiming that by asking about Trump vs. Bush vs. Cruz vs. Santorum vs. Palin vs. any other Republican, I have somehow proposed that Clinton and Trump would “damage America equally”?

Tis a strange, strange season. Never would have expected that.

@janbb: “But hey – you cling to your ideas. Peace out!”

If they’re not my ideas, and I’m trying to discuss things to work out stuff, what possible ideas could I be clinging to? What’s happening? I’m going to refresh my browser and hope I just missed something.

My most immediate concern about Trump is that it appears the next President will appoint at least one Supreme Court Justice. More, very possibly.

If Congress remains Republican controlled, my fear is that Trump would pander to the right and nominate an ultra-conservative to get brownie points for a stupid pet project like The Wall or setting the immigrant deportations in motion.
Trump may be the ultimate deal maker. His promises to his followers are largely, at this point, unworkable, undesirable, non-starters. The US is not going to bar all Muslims from entering the country. The US is not going to deport 17 million illegal immigrants. The US is not going to build a wall along the Mexican border. Yet, that is exactly what Trump has promised.

The real danger in Trump is in using some of the critical powers of the Executive Branch as bargaining chips to set in motion pet actions and policies that seem to “build his legacy” but ultimately go nowhere.
A supreme court justice could be with us for decades. Build-a-wall would be dead in months. Both would be at the top of a President Trump’s immediate agenda.

“The Constitution explicitly assigns to the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of his Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors.”
”[The President] can issue executive orders, which have the force of law but do not have to be approved by congress.”
Anyone who cannot see the danger in Donald Trump commanding the armed forces, creating laws, and adjourning Congress is seriously under-thinking this.

@Cruiser you have a lot more faith in our Next-to-useless Congress than I have. They have conceded most of their power the the Executive already and can do nothing but bemoan the fact.

I do agree with you however about it not being the end of the world if he is elected. We will just wish it were so.