How Donald Trump Became

the Front Runner

By Sam Gibson

With recent victories in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, Trump
must have a reason for his recent success in polls. Its stemmed from his past and
background, from which has created his influential as well as controversial standing
today. This could be the cause of his overwhelming newfound support and the
upbringing of the possible Republican Nominee to become the next President.
Donald Trump was an energetic, assertive child and his parents sent him to the New York
Military Academy at age 13, hoping the discipline of the school would channel his energy in

a positive manner (Trump Biography). He would later enter Fordham University and after 2
years transfer to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and
graduated with a degree in economics. With his father Fred Trump working in real estate
for years it was clear Donald wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps. Trump later became
involved in the company and eventually had control over it. In 1971 he changed the name
and moved to Manhattan. He started to build many projects in Manhattan that would allow
him to receive a large amount of recognition from the public. It was these projects that
allowed Donald to branch out and make more connections to people and other companies.
Trump being a successful businessman in real estate has to work with many contractors for
his projects, but Donald has found some issues with many of them. In an interview with
Reuters he said Ill do that with probably 10 or 15 percents of contractors (Flitter). This
was in reference to the fact that he doesnt always pay his contractors in full after their job.
I fight like hell to pay as little as possible, he said, You cant spend millions of dollars for
something you could do for $2,000 (Flitter). Out of 50 reviewed cases of contractors
working for Trump most were paid in full, but a dozen people werent paid to the agreed
amount or even at all. Many have tried to overcharge, in 2001 Columbus Construction
Corp. had done work for Trumps golf course and Trump took them to court. Trump won
and was awarded 3.3 million in damages for the overcharging of their work.
Donald had a darker part of his history more recently in comparison to the successful
businessmans previous successes. As shown Trump is tough on most people, but for
reasons that he feels are justified to him. In 2000, during a family dispute about the details
of his fathers will, Trump, who as by then fabulously wealthy in his own right, cut off
benefits from the family health plan that were paying for the medical care of his nephews
seriously ill young son (Cassidy). His nephew William has infantile spasms which is a rare
disorder which causes him to need constant nursing, many appointments with medical
specialists and the ER. The coverage that was going to terminate covered a bill that was
around $300,000. Trump responded by saying I cant help that. Its cold when someone
sues my father. Had he come to see me, things could very possibly have been much
different for them (Cassidy). Trump explained how he was a great kid, but Donalds sister

Mary and his nephews father Fred III didnt express nicer feelings towards each other.
Trump remained standing by his actions and was unapologetic about what he had done
and said.
One of the many reasons Americans have started to support or at the least pay attention to
Trump is the fact that hes unfiltered. In recent cases such as comments towards Ted Cruz,
Jeb Bush and other candidates, he has stirred up the media as well as the nation. The day
before the New Hampshire primary at Donald Trumps rally he was under fire for a
comment that he had echoed from a supporter in the crowd. On the subject of
waterboarding, which is controversial in its own right, Trump had heard a comment about
a fellow Republican candidate, Ted Cruz. Trump had first said that he had heard a female
supporter say a terrible thing, and that the crowd should just shout it out. Once he realized
that they couldnt hear he said She said, Hes a pussy. (Vitali). Later Trump commented,
All I was doing was repeating because people couldnt hear it, so I was doing everybody a
favor (Vitali). He would later go on CNN and be questioned about his actions and
continued to defend his comment.
Its not just comments about other candidates that gets covered, but he made statements
about Muslims, Mexicans and other groups that have set people off. These sort of
comments that hes being saying, with the lack of a politician's filter could have long lasting
effects towards certain people. In this case about Muslim Americans, has debatably got
other GOP candidates to become more open to speak against them. If it affected just this
group of people it could cause other topics to become more open for certain opinions or
thoughts on a topic. As Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who
specializes in U.S.-Islamic relations said, The spectrum of what can be said has been
expanded considerably thanks to Trump (Bush). These comments were about how he
supports a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the country, stating that the issue is
about safety rather than religion. He defended his words saying its necessary due to the

Paris attacks and San Bernardino. Trump uses these strong stances on issues as a way to
demonstrate that he would be a strong leader and proposing a temporary ban like this
would be a way to show that.
Trump has come from being more a lightweight candidate that people didnt take seriously
to the front runner to become the Republican candidate to become the next President of
the United States. If you ignore a bit of volatility here and there, Trump has held a big lead
in the national polls since August: thats seven months (Cassidy). Trump except for the
Iowa Caucus, where he lost to Ted Cruz by 3 percent, he has led all of the primaries. In the
New Hampshire Primary Trump won by a landslide with 35.3 percent of the vote with John
Kasich next with 15.8%. Next onto the South Carolina Primary where Trump won with 32.5
percent with Marco Rubio and Cruz, with 22.5 percent and 22.3 percent respectively. Also in
the South Carolina Primary Trump had won all 50 delegates from the state and another win
was the fact that Jeb Bush terminated his campaign after coming in a distant fourth place
(7.8 percent). He picks up support from almost all corners of the Republican Party--and
from outside of it (Cassidy). In Trumps recent win in South Carolina the exit polls have
shown that Trump has not just a specific type of person that would be his voter. The exit
polls have him winning many of the age ranges, income ranges, educational ranges,
ideology (scale of Conservatism/Liberalism), and many other categories. One explanation
emphasizes his outsider image, his unorthodox style, and his willingness to say things that
regular politicians wont (Cassidy). Donald likes to restate over and over about how hes
not a politician, and how hes not puppeted by others. He is self-funded, so he doesnt
accept money from donors or have any super-pacs, which he has stated many times have
great influence on those whom they have paid into. Many voters like the idea of having
someone other than a politician in power since its common idea that politicians recently
been getting much done about Americans issues.

With Donald Trump being projected to win the upcoming Nevada Caucus by CNN, and
currently at 45 percent as well as leading Marco Rubio by 21 percent. This is currently with
only 10 percent of votes in, but due to sample votes Trump has already been crowded to
almost completely become the winner of the Nevada Caucus. A surprising fact from the
Caucus currently is that hes winning the Latino vote over two candidates, Rubio and Cruz,
that have Cuban descent, as well as the fact that Trump has made controversial comments
about illegal immigration. 9 percent of the vote is made up of Latinos and Trump is leading
with 44 percent over Rubios 29 percent. This although is just a smaller part of Nevada has
gone against the popular vote of Latinos around the U.S. who dont support Trump to
become the Republican nominee. The last three major votes: the New Hampshire primary,
the South Carolina primary and now the Nevada Caucus show the wave of support the
Trump has gained over time and is getting even closer to becoming the Republican
candidate to become the next President of the United States.