Outrageous in both hairstyle and rhetoric, Donald Trump is one of the most remarkable candidates that has even run for President of the United States. Never has a political figure been so repudiated by their own party establishment. In the past weeks, key establishment sweetheart and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney attacked him personally as “a phoney, a fraud”. Even former primary rival Marco Rubio has said that he would be unlikely to vote for the “con artist” if he secured nomination, a sentiment echoed by the hashtag #AnyoneButTrump. Consequently, it seems evident that Trump is the ideal opponent for any Democrat who wants to succeed Barack Obama next January. 

Trump’s Republican detractors (Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham and Paul Ryan) still think there is time to block his candidacy, but the arithmetic continues to mount against them. Having hoarded delegates in recent primary contests in Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Arizona, Trump now has a lead of 275 delegates over his closest rival, Ted Cruz. He has 736 out of the 1,237 pledged delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination. Almost all the Republican establishment can do is propel remaining contenders Ted Cruz and John Kasich to win enough delegates so that Trump cannot reach that magic number outright on the first ballot held in Cleveland in July. If no candidate can reach 1,237, the convention to elect the nominee is thrown into mysterious ‘brokered’ territory, meaning that some delegates (depending on individual state party rules) may be able to switch allegiance on the second ballot from their initial candidate, allowing Cruz or Kasich to pull through. Such political horse-trading to grant party elders their preferred candidate has not been seen on the Republican side since 1952, and seems quite frankly undemocratic. As it stands, Trump is already – regrettably – the clear Republican winner, and we need to acknowledge that denying him this mandate might lead to the chaos and violence that his supporters are fully capable of creating.

Perhaps Trump may finally be discredited by some despicable comment; some have suggested that his recent ones on abortion may show that he's not electorally indestructible. Six months ago we might have been fooled into thinking this, but Trump makes despicable comments all the time, and they seem to merely reinforce his momentum. How many candidates could get away with pretending not to understand who the Ku Klux Klan are so as to avoid renouncing their endorsement? For that matter, how many candidates would be able to claim that the Mexican government would be funding a wall to keep their drug lords and rapists out of the United States, and still gain admiration? This man doesn’t play by the rules of civilised humanity, and yet he is still the frontrunner to gain the nomination of a mainstream party for the role of President of the United States.

One can understand why Donald Trump is so popular, especially among the small-town, anti-establishment, conservative and blue-collar portion of the Republican electorate. His language – however aggressive, racist, xenophobic or misogynistic – highlights their greatest fears. For Trump supporters, America is becoming something that it was never supposed to be: a nation weakened by foreigners subscribing to alien values. Trump appears to be the only candidate who will speak out and maybe one day be in a position to combat this. The United States is, of course, a country of immigrants, but from its genesis as a predominantly white Christian republic, the periodic reconfigurations to accommodate and embrace the values of new waves of arrivals have been fraught. By 2050, the America founded as a European project is projected to be a minority-majority country – a terrifying thought for Trump, his supporters and their ideals. These views exist as a minority, thankfully, but are potentially large enough to pull Trump through to the stage of nomination.

Ultimately, it is risky to have Donald Trump just 270 Electoral College votes away from the leadership of a world superpower. But will he even get close? Trump is contesting in a primary system beleaguered by poor turnouts, and with pro-establishment support very divided – two candidates, formerly three, versus one. Of Donald’s 21 victories so far, only 11 primaries have been won with over 40 per cent of the vote. The only location where he has won a majority is the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory so insignificant electorally that I doubt Trump even knew it existed before 2016. However, as Trump continues to top polls in the large remaining primary states – New York, California, Pennsylvania – which are winner-takes-all in terms of delegates, it seems his rivals are persisting in vain. Ted Cruz still thinks he has purchase with evangelical or social conservative voters, and John Kasich fancies his chances as a 'brokered convention' saviour, but the polls are not in their favour. 

Dynastic politics may be anachronistic, and Hillary Clinton may appear to some as a conflict-ridden, aloof character, but honestly, is there a better candidate in this election cycle? I see 2016 as a year where we yearn for the best candidates that didn’t run; Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren declined a real chance to seek the nomination. Regardless, Clinton is fundamentally a sensible, moderate Democrat who will continue Obama’s admirable legacy. Bernie Sanders is a rather too idealistic, Jeremy Corbyn-like candidate, but for a left-wing, self-confessed socialist to be achieving successes across the country as a whole, especially against the formidable Hillary machine, is extraordinary.

With recurrent race problems and adversarial gridlock in Washington it is clear that a Democratic unifier is needed. Donald Trump cannot ‘make deals’, nor can he ‘Make America Great Again’, but he can help the country. Winning the primary race would guarantee that his party loses the Presidency, it seems. Obama himself said in a February interview that he has faith in the American people to elect someone other than Donald Trump to the Presidency.

As a centrist, liberal British student, I may be completely wrong on this. But I believe that the American people will deliver a desperately needed Democratic victory. If Trump wins the nomination, he will be renounced, divide the Republican electorate, and hand Hillary Clinton the Presidency on a plate.