Donald Trump: Who can stop him?

Sir: He started the race to the White House as a non-starter, more of a joker, sort of, so everybody thought. The Republican mainstream, that is, the Grand Old Party (GOP) establishment, saw Donald Trump, when he first began his ‘noisy’ campaign under the party, as an embarrassing irritant. He had no room for niceties. He was never afraid to step even where the angels dare not tread. He took on everybody. He took on the Muslims. He said, for example, that under his presidency, Muslims would be locked out of America. For the Mexican people, who he referred to as a bunch of criminals, Trump said he would build a wall that would make it impossible for them to cross to the U.S.

He didn’t spare the African Americans either. He said he would ship all of them back to their continent: Africa. For Obama, Trump said for sure that the president should be ready to pack his bag and luggage and return to Kenya, where his father hailed from. Nigerians in America were not spared the Trump scourge. He said Nigerian politicians were thieves and so Nigerian citizens shouldn’t be allowed to come to America to steal jobs that belonged to Americans or to hide their loots. He said so many other bizarre things and stepped on several toes. The more he said those unprintable things the more surprisingly his popularity soured in the air. But even at that, many didn’t give Donald Trump any chance. They were sure his candidacy would soon lose momentum and he would back out of the race. That never happened.

With his superlative performance at Super Tuesday in Indiana, clinching all the delegates and beating his nearest rival Ted Cruz by an imaginable wide margin, causing the latter to drop out of the race, Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican candidate! John Kasich, the last republican contender in race, also has thrown in the towel, leaving only Donald Trump in the race for the republican party flag.

For now, with the strings of losses Hillary Clinton has suffered in the hands of her sole Democratic rival Sanders in recent times, and also in Indiana Super Tuesday, no one can say for sure, between Hillary and Sanders, who Trump would be facing in the general election. Whoever becomes that candidate, I dare say, must be fully prepared for Donald Trump, a moving hurricane!
Sly Edaghese,
Lagos.