US presidential race - Confounding the critics

DONALD Trump continues to confound his critics. 

Defying all assurances given by political pundits that such an apparently shallow and deeply divisive person would have no chance of winning the race for the Republican candidacy in the US presidential election, not alone has the billionaire tycoon survived, he has excelled in the cut and thrust of combative American style electioneering.

The writing was on the wall when his main rival, Ted Cruz, a candidate of the right wing Tea Party group, dropped out of the race following Mr Trump’s resounding victory at the primaries in Indiana, the latest in a chain of stunning results, leaving puzzled pundits and bemused academics scratching their heads about his appeal. It ranges from middle-class voters to out-of-work rednecks who admire his social media brand of coarseness and feel the lift in America’s economy left them stranded.