“If anyone else was in Trump’s position they’d be viewed as the inevitable nominee,” said one former Reagan administration official who supports Donald J. Trump. “I have never seen a group of people so obtuse as to what is going on outside of Washington that they feel comfortable writing Trump off. They’re finally just now coming to the realization that he’s going to win.”
Donald Trump is closing in on 100 days atop the Republican primary polls.
The billionaire candidate has led every major national Republican poll since late July, and a raft of new surveys released this week reveals that Trump’s support has held steady over those months, while his underlying fundamentals have improved.
The race has tightened somewhat, as Ben Carson has enjoyed a similar upward trajectory and even overtaken Trump in one new poll of Iowa. However, the retired neurosurgeon is the only candidate within shouting distance of Trump nationally or in the early voting states and remains firmly in second place in most polls.
Republicans and Beltway media elites, once hesitant to take Trump’s campaign seriously, now acknowledge him as a legitimate contender in the races for the Republican nomination and the White House.
“All of us dismissed Trump early on. A summer fling, momentary amusement,” “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace said after interviewing Trump over the weekend. “As I watch that interview … I am beginning to believe he could be elected president of the United States.”
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said the same thing this week.
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