grahamg wrote:
Aida wrote:
….surely he shouldn’t be allowed to stand after all the things he has done? Didn’t he illegally ‘borrow’ and handle classified documents after his Presidency ended ? The whole world watched him instigate a march of his supporters which ended up in rioters storming the Capitol building, the very heart of American politics. . He has brought shame upon the Republican Party.
If in spite of all the things he's done a majority of those voting in Republican primaries choose him again then this may have to be tolerated if it cant be opposed, (except by whoever the Democrats put forward as their candidate, should they win).
However, if support in the two houses sitting in Washington DC is there (and needed) to make sure the former president cannot stand because some courts process makes him ineligible to stand then this is a different matter. It will be interesting to see what happens there wont it.
Despite the numerous crimes which he is alleged to have committed Trump, or any US citizen for that instance, can still run and serve as President, while in jail. However in the case of Trump while most see that he has committed crimes he has not yet been charged with anything beyond some civil matters in NY, for which some are being tried now in Court. What is likely to happen however, should he make it to the election and is voted in, there would need to be an immediate impeachment process to bar him from actually taking up the Office. It would get very messy, very quickly and there is no guarantee, far from it, that the Republicans should they have the whip hand, would actually convict him making him ineligible to serve.
As to whether he could make it to the WH again, the larger the field of contenders on the Republican side, the better his odds of pulling it off. He doesn't have to get 50% + 1 to be the Republican nominee, just have the largest single number of votes supporting him, which is why the bigger the field to dilute the individual votes the better for Trump. It is assessed that even with all he has done he has at least 30-35% of the Republican vote still sown up. That gives him a very good head start on any other candidates.
Early signs are that he will get absolutely minimum or even zero help from the party machine and would be looked upon as an independent running under the conservative banner.