Donald Trump's bid for the presidency is giving Americans a fresh take at solving the dire problems the country is facing today. But more than just presenting the current crises, Trump is also suggesting some hard hitting and controversial solutions if he ever makes it to the White House. And somehow Americans are hearing him.
Since he announced his candidacy on June 16, he gained an increasing amount of mentions on social media. Using data from PEORIA Project and Zignal Labs, The Washington Post found out that after a month of his announcement, he gained 7.1 million mentions, a huge 32.5 percent share of overall chatter of both Republican and Democrat candidates. He takes 46.6 percent share of all chatter among Republican candidates. Hillary Clinton got 17.7 percent while Jeb Bush received 7.5 percent.
While Republican campaign managers might have brushed Trump's early lead as an unsustainable boom based on his popularity, the demographics where these surging polls are coming from are more diverse than previously expected.
A review of nine national polls and public surveys by the New York Times showed that Trump is ahead of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas by 13 percent among Tea Party supporters, even though Cruz is known to be widely popular among fiscal conservatives. Trump is also ahead of Gov. Mike Huckabee of Texas by 9 percent among evangelicals, a group seen to be very supportive of the preacher-turned governor. And interestingly, Trump is also ahead of Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, by 6 percent among moderate Republicans even if Bush was an obvious favorite of these mainstream donors. Put simply, Trump is beating Republican rivals where they are expected to lead.
In the midst of the noise and controversy of Trump's early campaign trail, he still manages to get the hopes up of ordinary, struggling Americans.
Meanwhile, CNN's Jeremy Diamond inquired of Trump's campaign expenses so far.
In his candid, straightforward manner, Trump answered, "I make $400 million a year, so what difference does it make? What I want to do is make the country great."
