Erstellt am: 2. 3. 2016 - 16:44 Uhr

Can anyone stop the runaway Trump-train?

How the GOP dug what could be its own grave

The US Republicans have a problem, and it's a huge, messy, and embarrassing one. For starters, the party which, for many years, has known it must break away from its image of being the party of rich, old, white men now stands to head into the November presidential election represented by the rich, old, white man to end them all, in the shape of Donald Trump.

AFP / Laura Buckman

Be careful what you wish for.... "The Donald" could give the GOP the quick winner they wanted, but he might also be their worst nightmare

To make matters worse, Trump is not just rich, old and white, he's also belligerent, offensive, racist, sexist... many of his own party hate him, and 65% of Republican voters say they will vote for anyone OTHER THAN "The Donald". That means he's not just the worst type of stereotype, he also appears to be driving away well over half the party base.

At the beginning of the Primary season, pundits were saying that Trump was a flash in the pan, a one-off winner, who would soon lose momentum and drop out of the race. But somehow, The Donald is still racking up victories, and it's hard to see how anyone can stop him.

To a large extent, the party itself created the conditions for this to happen. Keen to avoid a long, acrimonious, and exhausting process to choose the nominee, the Republican Party (aka the GOP) drew up new rules in 2012, intended to give a strong front-runner a quick victory. That is certainly something they have lived to regret, as the rogue candidate gallops into the lead.

The whole system is incredibly complicated, and it differs from state to state; there's a "simple" description here, if you have a mind for it. However, at the end of the day, it all boils down to number of delegates, who then vote for their appointed candidate at the party conventions in June.

AFP / Laura Buckman

Ted Cruz might be in second place, but has little chance of toppling Trump at the moment.

As of Super Tuesday, The Donald has just over one half of the delegates allocated so far. He has 285, while Cruz, Rubio, Kasich and Carson have 281 between them. Cruz has the largest share of these, with 161. Getting the picture? If it were Trump against one other, it would be a close race, but as it is, he's running away with it.

There's still a long way to go. 1,237 delegates are needed to win, but if anyone else is going to provide a reasonable challenge, they need to start winning soon, and the others will have to pull out of the contest.

If Trump does take the nomination, although he clearly has a strong appeal among a particular demographic, he is almost certainly going to lose the party more votes than he gains.

As analyst James Boys said on today's Reality Check, Trump has "alienated vast swathes of America with some of his more radical statements, including on women, Mexicans, and the like, and with his recent refusal to denounce the Klu Klux Klan, that is going to alienate him from African-Americans."

That's a lot of votes he's handing to Hillary on a plate, and at present, there doesn't seem to be anything the GOP can do about it, according to the Washington Post. Now, you may say that the WP is famously left leaning, so perhaps would take this view, but even the famously right wing, Republican supporting Fox News is offering tips on stopping Trump.

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