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Trump Campaign Analysis

By Julian Devera
4/27/16

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There is no doubt that history is in the making with this years primaries, and the one
behind it all is the one and only Donald Trump. An unpredictable wild card, hes climbed down
from his throne at Trump Tower to try his hand at the presidency. Unfortunately for the
Republican Party, nobody took him seriously starting off and thought his campaign would end up
being a joke. That would end up being their undoing, and if there is anything Trump knows best
its how to take advantage of a good opportunity and win big from it. Now his campaign has so
much momentum that he truly is an unstoppable force and is about to claim the Republican
nomination. So how is it that a real estate tycoon is able to gain so much traction without being
politically correct? Its all a combination of seizing opportunity on the circumstances of the day,
his political rivals and how hes handled them, and through his own life experience as a
persuader and businessman that molded his empire.
To start things off, take a look at the issues plaguing the modern world. The mob at the
gates, the organization known as the Islamic State, commonly referred to as ISIS, is undeniably a
threat to global security. Their acts of terror have been felt all around the world, bringing harm to
both the United States and Europe. As long as ISIS exists, a premise of fear plagues the hearts of
people. Examples of this would include the San Bernardino incident where a radicalized couple
launched domestic attacks on their own friends and colleagues in a workplace. The Boston
Marathon bombing, where young extremists used pressure cooker bombs near the marathons
finish line, is another example. Outside the realm of terrorism is the growing power of not just
the Peoples Republic of China, but of other countries such as India and Mexico. And if it isnt
terrorism that has people scared, its the issues the country is experiencing with Law
Enforcement. The very people that are supposed to be protecting us are being painted in a picture
where they are the enemy and that the people cannot trust them. It has reached the point where

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people are taking advantage of this fear and hatred against the police to their own benefit in these
times of civil unrest. This was seen following the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray
where peaceful protests against the officers responsible for their deaths transformed into violent
riots, and even looting. The rest of the world, thanks to the rapid exchange of information from
social media, had the opportunity to watch this unfold and look at the animals the people of the
United States have become, tearing apart their own communities and lashing out against their
own protectors. But terrorism, police brutality, and rioting are not the only issues causing the
American people to feel fear and anger. There are jobs being lost by hard working Americans
because corporations are seizing business opportunities for growth outside of the country.
Companies like Nabisco, General Motors, and Ford are aiming to produce their products in
countries like Mexico and China because its cheaper to hire people for their plants out there
instead of domestically. Their decision to increase their profits has left millions of Americans
unemployed, worried for their future and angered. Not to mention the fear and unrest from illegal
immigrants and how the country is currently handling them. Regardless of their circumstances
coming to America, some of them are getting away with crimes and murder, fueling even more
fear and anger within the people.
These particular issues of the day along with many others build on the foundation of
support for Donald Trumps campaign. He understands these issues and like any good candidate
he has provided solutions to the American people for how he will deal with them. Using the fear
and anger swelling up within America, Trump boldly proclaims that he will wipe ISIS off the
face of the earth and build a wall on the border that Mexico will pay for. He has made his stance
on Law Enforcement and gun control and is in full support of respecting the police for doing
their job and protecting the second amendment. According to him America is losing on trade, and

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when a very successful businessman is saying that the country is losing in trade and has evidence
of big companies leaving the country and taking jobs with them, the average American is bound
to believe him and feel that he knows what hes talking about despite not knowing anything else
about the issue. True to his name as Donald Trump, he has declared that he will be the best jobs
president God ever created and will take back the jobs that are leaving America. When Donald
Trump makes a promise that he will restore jobs to people who have lost them and dont know
what to do next with their lives, there is no doubt that they will believe he can do it. Donald
Trump takes it a step further from playing on the fears and anger of the American people though,
plays on their pride as well. The slogan for his campaign, Make America Great Again, sends a
very powerful message to the American people who are tired of being pushed around and want
change and progress. What Donald Trump has started is a movement unlike any other in this
generation that will shake not only America, but the entire world if he gets elected.
Those are just a few of the stances Donald Trump has made during his campaign and
constantly hammers on every rally and every debate. While Trump brings some big promises to
the American people, does he have the backbone to stand by these promises and tackle the
proving grounds of politics, in the presidential debates? The answer is that he has more than
enough backbone. In fact Donald Trumps performance in debates had a very powerful effect on
gaining momentum for his campaign and destroying not only his rivals momentum, but also the
establishment itself. Lets take poor old Jeb Bush for example. He meant well, had the powerful
Bush Dynasty and hundreds of millions in campaign funding. Back when this race started he was
projected as one of the bigger candidates to watch out for. That was then, yet when the debates
started and everyone targeted Donald Trump each and every debate, Trump seized opportunity
and stood his ground. He got free publicity thanks to the press constantly trying to stain his

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image and was the number one target for attacks in debates. Yet because of that he was able to
show the American people that he knew how to hold his ground in a debate and easily destroyed
the credibility of his rivals. Jeb Bushs biggest mistake was giving the media what they wanted
by attacking Donald Trump as much as possible and it backfired very hard on him. Despite
attacks on rivals credibility being a common tactic in the realm of politics, Donald Trump
entering the election was a game changer that completely ignored the rules of standard politics as
we knew it today. Not only did Jeb Bush fail to lower Donald Trumps credibility, but Donald
Trump was able to tear his credibility apart, labeling him a low energy candidate and making a
fool out of him on national television. The Republican Debate of last December shows a great
example of Donald Trump lowering Jebs credibility while raising his own (President US 2016,
2015). Starting from 19:15 in the video Trump points out how unfair and unprofessional it is of
CNN constantly using him as a debate target, when Jeb Bush jumps in and points out that if
Trump cant handle it then he cant handle the presidency. Trump takes the attack and backfires,
sarcastically calling Jeb a really tough guy as Jeb tries to talk about how tough the presidency is
followed up by giving Jeb the poll numbers at the time where Trump is winning by a large
margin not only against Jeb, but everyone else in the party, where he stands at 42% in polls
versus Jeb Bushs pitiful 3%. Jeb Bush continues to make these mistakes, constantly marking
Trump as his main political rival rather than refraining from attacking Trump despite these
attacks only giving Trump more and more credibility while his own collapsed into nothing.
Further examples of Trump discrediting his political rivals would include how he refers to his
Ted Cruz as Lying Ted, and pokes fun at Kasich for being very unprofessional with the huge
variety of images floating around where Kasich is shown sloppily eating all kinds of food even
during political meetings. Whats so incredible about it all is that despite all the negative

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publicity Trump is getting which would normally ruin support for any ordinary candidate, Trump
is almost completely immune to it all and continues to gain widespread support among the
Republican Party. From the standard frontal attack strategy to the aggressive message sequence,
none of it seems to phase Trump. At this point in the election there is no doubt that Donald
Trump has the Republican Primaries in the bag, and hes already preparing himself for the real
deal against Hillary.
So what is it that makes Donald Trump so different from the rest of the candidates? Why
should the American people trust a businessman of all people, someone who has no political
experience and was one of the people at the top playing the same game as the rest of the corrupt
business officials toying with the lives of Americans? For starters, hes not any ordinary
candidate. In fact, hes not a politician at all in the eyes of the American people. This was
someone they all knew from outside the realm of politics. This is someone who is incredibly
wealthy and successful with more energy than any other candidate running this election. Thats
right, this is Donald Trump, a billionaire from New York whos tired of watching America lose
and has come to make it great again. Unlike the rest of the candidates save for Hillary, everyone
knows who Donald Trump is. In fact most Americans probably wouldnt have known Jeb Bush
even existed until he suddenly announced that he was running, despite being a member of the
Bush dynasty. The same could be said for a lot of politicians running, to a majority of Americans
who usually dont care about politics they dont know any of the people running except for the
big names like Hillary who end up on the news. Now all of a sudden they see Donald Trump is
running and have a reason to become emotionally involved with this years election because they
know exactly what kind of guy he is, and looking at his supporters you can tell how much they
love him. Just watch any Trump rally and look at the sheer amount of energy and support in the

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crowd for Donald Trump. It is not an exaggeration to say that if youve watched one Trump rally,
youve watched them all. The same thing happens at every Trump rally without fail. Every single
Trump rally has huge turnouts that are unheard of for any other presidential candidate, the usual
protesters that interrupt the speech and lead to even more cheering for Trump as they are lead out
of the rally. At this point its not even a political rally, its one giant party at an incredible venue
sponsored by Donald Trump, and hes the main attraction. Trump always hammers on the same
issues every rally while doing his research on what is happening in the state. When he comes to a
state, he has his aids learn everything there is to know about whats going wrong with the state,
whether they are drug problems or jobs leaving. And not only in every rally but in general, he is
never politically correct. Because he is not politically correct, his crowds are able to relate to
him. It allows him to say things that no other candidate would ever think of saying and is exactly
what the American people want to hear. His image as a powerful businessman, who understands
how the system works and understands how to make deals, who self-funds his campaign and
rejects special interest donors and lobbyists, sends a strong message of legitimacy that he will
serve the people and only the people, not the businesses who take advantage of government.
People believe he really will build a wall, no matter how improbable it sounds, specifically
because hes Donald Trump. They tell Trump that he cant build a wall and that Mexico would
never pay for it, and in response all Trump has to do is say, The wall will be built, and it just got
ten feet taller. His campaign has moved beyond being merely a campaign and has become a
movement.
There is no doubt that he is spearheading a movement, he is leading the silent majority
and they dont care about being politically correct. Despite the fact that he was born rich, the
people are able to relate to him because hes not a traditional politician. One of the biggest

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messages he sends out to gain support is that the entire political system is crooked and corrupt
and that the American people are being used by the higher ups. According to Trump, the
American Dream is dead, and hes here to revive it. He sells himself as the messenger of the
people; he tells everyone that he is an American just like them who wants America to win. He is
the image of a messiah coming to deliver the true message of the American people by saying it
like it is, not pretending to be politically correct like those corrupt politicians. Take for example
his rally in Buffalo, NY (Right Side Broadcasting, 2016), following Ted Cruzs horrible
statement about New York values hurting his campaign tremendously as someone who was born
in Canada and not in the United States. Citing the victims of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the
heroism displayed not only by the first responders, but all the people of New York who did what
they could to help as people who held New York values, Trump sent a powerful message to the
hearts of his fellow New Yorkers that he genuinely cares for the people. And it was not just the
people of New York who saw this and felt moved by Donald Trump, but everyone around the
country who were watching the rally from their homes. This could be considered a syllogism that
the American people cast their ballot for Ted Cruz, a liar born in Canada who does not appreciate
the values of the men and women who came together during a time of terror, or support Donald
Trump, a fellow American who genuinely cares for the people and wants to fight for the people.
As a matter of fact, it may very well be because he is Donald Trump and refuses to be politically
correct that the standard tactics in politics has little to no effect on his campaign and image in
deterring support from him. Its because hes not politically correct that he can call out on the
system and the press being corrupt and dishonest, further reinforcing the views of those who
support him against the messages that slander him in the press. Supporters of Donald Trump are

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willing to stand by him no matter what is said about him because they feel such comments
thrown against him are natural and should not be taken seriously.
By this point in the election, all the candidates have already made their beliefs known and
told the American people where they stand. In turn, the majority of Americans have responded
and firmly planted their support in who they believe should be the next president. Of course
while Donald Trump has a huge following behind him, there is an equally vocal amount of
people vehemently against him. Theyre dead set on believing that there is no way Donald
Trump will ever get elected president, and some of them take it to the next level and are willing
to protest against him. Sometimes these protests start to become violent, and the media takes full
advantage of this to stain Trumps image. So one may ask, how does Trump deal with these
rowdy people, and how does he plan on gaining the support of voters who support the likes of
Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz, candidates with large followings that are projected to not make it to
the final battle for the presidential nominee? When it comes to protestors, in recent Trump rallies
there is now an overwhelming police presence ready and waiting to escort the now inevitable
protestors out of the venue. Even the secret services have gone from concealing their presence
during his rallies to making it known following recent events with protestors becoming violent
including an attempted attack on Trump. Despite the press saying that his rallies are violent, it is
always the protestors who incite the violence. With these becoming a normal part of every Trump
rally, it may confuse people as to how he expects to gain even more support moving on in the
future when the violence may be prone to erupting even further against him as he inches closer to
winning the election. Trumps answer to this is that he believes he will eventually gain the
support of those rallying behind his defeated rivals. He calls his campaign a movement, and that
he is merely the messenger of the American people and that he is working for their benefit. This

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is how he garnered so much support to begin with, and how he believes he will gain the support
of those whose candidates have dropped out of the race. These voters will be left with two
choices, they either support a new candidate or they dont vote at all. The political trail has
already approached the end of the winnowing stage and is approaching the nomination stage with
Donald Trump as the most likely candidate to move on against Hillary Clinton; these voters will
have already been exposed to enough information about the two remaining candidates in the race
to have an idea of who they want to switch over to. Thanks to todays rapid exchange of
information, they dont even need to do all that much research about either Republican or
Democratic candidate to know what their values are and where they stand towards improving
America. In Trumps case he may appear to be at a disadvantage, especially with Bernie
supporters, as there is already a large prejudice against his campaign by those who dont support
him. What he does have going for him however are the future debates should he take the
Republican nomination against the Democratic nominee. His performance in these debates will
be crucial, and he has an advantage against Hillary and Bernie with his aggressive style of
debate. Hillary is still hurting from the backlash of her emails, and will be forced to do
something about her transcripts. Bernie on the other hand already struggles in his debates against
Hillary and would become overwhelmed by Donald Trump, especially because of branding
himself as a Democratic Socialist, with the Socialist part being a highly exploitable weakness
among many others in his campaign. The Democratic debates are like the calm before a storm
compared to the Republican debates due to Bernie Sanders stance on being non-aggressive, and
against a highly aggressive debater like Donald Trump who will attack every weakness his
opponent has, people are going to see a very different side to the Democratic nominees moving
forward. Depending on how Trump handles his Democratic rivals, he can easily control the tide

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in his favor just as he did starting this election season back during the early Republican Primaries
with Jeb Bush and the rest of his rivals today, who are already losing much of their supporters to
Donald Trump following repeated blow out victories from his home state New York to the recent
five states, a major blow to the Cruz and Kasich campaigns and a decisive sign of weakness and
loss of support.
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump has everything going for him that makes him an
influential persuader. Hes got expertise, charisma, a powerful image, and huge amounts of
dynamism. People love winners and guess what, Donald Trump is a winner and just keeps
winning. Thats the heart of Donald Trumps campaign, that he will make America as great as he
made his brand name and that with him in charge America will be winners. No matter how
unpredictable of a president he may be if he does get elected, there is no doubt his campaign at
this point is unstoppable. To his followers, he is the messiah and knows all the hot buttons to
press to gain their support. He has succeeded in intensifying his image beyond what it was
starting off while downplaying his rivals straight out of the competition. The Trump campaign is
a massive success and has a very real shot at the presidency later this year.

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Citations
President US 2016 (December 12, 2015) Donald Trump Complete DEBATE Highlights at Las
Vegas Republican Debate CNN (12-15-2015) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=yAgoa28kEwA
Right Side Broadcasting (April 18, 2016) Full Speech: Donald Trump Holds MASSIVE Rally in
Buffalo, NY (4-18-16) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9tHQ7-u0bo