WI: Trump runs for President in 2000

For a while in 2000, Donald Trump seriously considered running for President as the Reform Party candidate. He seemed a credible alternative to Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin, and garnered media attention for his bid when he ran in the Reform party's California Primary. He finally dropped out in late 1999, citing the party's ideological infighting and it's ridiculously big tent nature.

However what if he had remained in the race, he seemd to realise from the beginning that his personality would gain more attention than the party itself, what if he chose to ignore the ideological split between Buchanan and Hagelin until he defeated both in the Primaries, becoming the official candidate without the walk out and legal battle that accompanied the party's convention in 2000?

Along with the federal matching funds the party would receive, he had also indicated that he might throw large amounts of his personal wealth into the campaign, allowing him to stand on an equal footing with the Democrats and Republicans. If he went ahead and did this, how might he have done in the general election running on an economically conservative, socially moderate platform? Would he have got into the debates? Is there any chance he could pick up some electoral votes, or even win?
 
The biggest problem is Trump himself. I imagine after months of media attention on the level of the presidential campaign, he'll crash and burn. It may be a little like this election cycle where he began as a Birther icon of sorts and ended as the butt of everybody's jokes.
 
2000 is before The Apprentice, his marriage to a foreign model, and him becoming a birther, all of which turned Trump into a complete joke. 2000 is his best shot to be a serious Perot-like contender, although there will already be laws getting in his way, challenges to ballot access, etc.
 
2000 is before The Apprentice, his marriage to a foreign model, and him becoming a birther, all of which turned Trump into a complete joke. 2000 is his best shot to be a serious Perot-like contender, although there will already be laws getting in his way, challenges to ballot access, etc.

He is still an egomaniac and a bit of a joke. I am saying that the media frenzy may exacerbate these tendencies more rapidly.

Or, like Perot, the attention and the demands of a modern campaign on an individual with no experience with it may cause him to suspend before the actual election. Perot seemed to think running for President was 9-5 job.

There are going to be a lot of easy smears and skeletons coming out the closet – affair, divorce, bankruptcy, gambling and the WWF, for starters.
 
As well as Perot in 1996 at best. Probably a little worse. He has a decent chance at getting 5% so the Reform Party would get matching funds for 2004 though.

I think that might be a bit too low, depending on how much of his own money he puts in and whether he gets into the debates, I think he could get somewhere inbetween Perot's 1992 and 1996. Considering the amount of apathy there seemed to be towards Bush and Gore, any prominent third party candidate would probably have benefited.
 
I think Trump will turn off voters. If ran I see him dropping out. I don't thin Trump would ever run for office. hHe wouldn't want the scrutiny.
 
Top