A top GOP pollster tried to find out why people love Donald Trump - and left with his legs 'shaking'
Business Insider By Brett LoGiurato, Maxwell Tani and Adam Banicki
1 hour ago
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When Donald Trump insulted John McCain and questioned his status as a "war hero," some analysts dubbed it the turning point of the Trump campaign.
But some of his most ardent supporters have proven why, more than a month later, Trump continues to surge in polls.

"I don't think he was necessarily trying to insult him," one voter who described herself as being a Trump supporter said Monday night, as part of a focus group conducted by pollster Frank Luntz.

Luntz presided over the focus group Monday night in Virginia; it featured 29 people who either support Trump or have at some point during the campaign expressed support for him. Business Insider attended the focus group.

Their unfettered support has fueled Trump's rise in Republican primary polls and kept him in the top spot for months. No controversy appears to faze them out of the many Trump has endured - from controversial comments over immigration, to the McCain comments, to a bitter, lingering feud with Fox News and host Megyn Kelly.

The focus group should not be considered representative of the Republican Party as a whole, or of the electorate in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire. But their unwavering support indicates that there may be nothing that can take down Trump.

"This is a different cat. This is a different phenomenon," Luntz told reporters after conducting the focus group.

"This is real. I'm having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking," he added.

"I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don't realize how the grassroots have abandoned them. Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn't listening to their grassroots."

No controversy appeared to dim their level of support for Trump.

On Trump's feud with television personality Rosie O'Donnell, one panelist said she "attacked him first." A majority of respondents reacted negatively to his comments on McCain, but Luntz said Tuesday night that Trump was the only candidate this cycle to score a perfect 100 from respondents when they viewed his comments on veterans.

Even his history of more liberal positions on certain issues didn't appear to faze voters. One panelist asked the others in the room "how many" of them had not changed their positions on anything over the past 15 years.

The group was "prepped to dismiss every negative," Luntz said. "His base cannot be broken."

It certainly won't be broken by controversies that resonate in the press. Panelists appeared particularly disdainful of most mainstream media outlets, claiming that "the media" is collectively seeking to discredit Trump.

Almost everyone in the room agreed when Luntz asked if the media was "more about inciting than informing," and all but one panel member agreed or did not respond when asked about whether they are inclined to automatically support Trump when he is attacked by media outlets.

"The media and the establishment are deathly afraid of Trump," a panel member said.

"That's why I particularly love him. Because the media has become de facto the power behind the throne in this country."

"Every time the media thinks it's got a 'gotcha,' he turns it around on them," another panelist said.

And at the end of the session, when reporters from The Washington Post and The Associated Press came into the room to ask questions, several outspoken panel members made snide comments.

"They need to start reporting again," a panelist said after Washington Post reporter Robert Costa left the room.

And when an Associated Press reporter introduced herself: "That's too bad."

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Dora Hates You

You spend decades dumbing down the party, you get this.


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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

^Fixed that for ya

The Dem leadership is pretty whacko too. Finances, media/marketing infrastructure, and electoral college issues aside, it shouldn't be all that hard for a moderate 3rd party candidate to get elected.

I don't see it as just dumb leaders.
The entire apparatus has been filling their base with intellectual mush for decades, they now seem stupid enough to buy the silliness that he is sending.

A moderate could be, but Trump ain't that.
(Clinton is)



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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Decades of dumbing down gets you democrat controlled cities, and how are most of them doing? And a  group of corrupt leaders that their base follows no matter what ethics or laws they step on.

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Romans 8;18-32 John 3;16-18

Way off topic already, but Cities will always be places where progress wins, just do to demographics and the sort of people that prefer cities.
Republicans tend to run away.
Decades of white flight and horrible state tax policies gets you messed up cities.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

What is funny is how he and his followers attack "the media" as antagonistic while they keep rolling over for him without real challenge.
I so hope he gets the GOP nod or runs independent. That could kill the party and cement another decade of progress.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

This just in, Trump says if elected he will do away with Cinco de Mayo by removing the 5th of May from the calendar.

"Decades of dumbing down gets you democrat controlled cities, and how are most of them doing?" Tampa is doing great,Thanks Bob Buckhorn

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Ah, religion, bigotry dressed up as morality.

This is the age of meme, vine, and vulgarity. We celebrate all that is rude, confrontational, and aggressive online with 6 second clips. In the information age no one has time for analysis.

Reality TV also has taken it's toll on the soul of America. We like aggression, we love someone who puts down others who we see as competitors or antagonists.

Megyn and McCain were friendly fire incidents. I still think it's early and there will be a backlash.

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“It is the heart of US policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism “ - Michael Parenti

^ Most likely this. Still more than 5 months until the first primary (Iowa caucus). Plenty of time for people to shoot themselves in the foot.

Trump will prove himself to be a useful idiot. But he also serves as a standard by which to judge the idiocy level of others, many of whom don't seem smart enough to have gotten as far as they have already.

It is surprising that Ben Carson is the runner-up behind Trump in polls that I saw. Both will make mistakes that doom them.

I think Carly Fiorina will continue to gain, and she can also steal Trump's "thunder" as a business person and political outsider.

Not sure where she'll wind up, but she won't get brushed aside until late in the game.

Hopefully, Trump's open mouth will fulfill its useful-idiot capacity by forcing others to be more vocal with specific plans and commitments on issues. He will be like an accelerant to a fire.

Even more hopefully, Trump will fold and then throw his endorsement, resources and money toward a good, viable, slightly-right-of-center candidate.

But I don't see him doing so. If he runs 3rd-party, it sabotages all things Republican. More likely, he will take his ball and go home.

I hope he gets the nomination. He probably will.

man, I thought that article said Frank Lutz.

White flight because the cities became unlivable. If it were state tax policies, then the suburbs would be screwed up too. They are not. Mind you, some states, such as NY, Ca. and Il. do have screwed up state tax policies as well, and everyone who can are fleeing them.

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I :heart; Q

NYC is suffering from "white flight"? Been up there lately?

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“It is the heart of US policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism “ - Michael Parenti

Yes, frequently. Manhattan is white, the rest is a rainbow.also not so messed up, rather the center of most of our wealth.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Frank Putz.

Manhattan is a gorgeous mosaic, Harlem black, below Canal St. Asian, Spanish Harlem, you name it, they have it.

I don't think Manhattan is experiencing "white flight". NYC is of course international, but that doesn't mean whites are leaving.

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“It is the heart of US policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to be saving democracy from communism “ - Michael Parenti

"These politicians in Washington? They're stupid!" - D Trump

The guy is a living bumper sticker and the ideal candidate for our short attention spans.

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I was right.

looks like the democrat plan for the last decade, oh no an outsider is using your alinsky tactics