Can Donald Trump Really Be A Republican?

The Donald has won the support of an important segment of the GOP base.  All of the GOP candidates are running against the "GOP Establishment" but Trump's supporters believe that he is less dependent upon the billionaires who fund the other candidates.  Jeb Bush has spent more than all of the other candidates on advertising without any effect on the polls.  Bush is regarded as Mr. Establishment but the other candidates are similarly dependent upon funding from the GOP establishment.  If we had a parliamentary system in the US, Trump, and his base, would be forming a third party for right populists much like those which have winning populist support in Europe.  Trump promised that he would not run as third party candidate if he did not win the election because a third party candidate cannot win a presidential election in the US.  However, his popularity exposes a serious problem in the Republican Party.  It is a divided party that is being pulled in two separate directions.  It is struggling to serve the interests of the Trump populists and its traditional financial supporters.  The GOP message of cutting taxes for the rich and deregulating the economy is falling on deaf ears for those who have been most seriously affected by globalization and the hollowing out of the middle class.  Moreover, the GOP brand has been damaged by associated itself with many of the social issues and the anti-intellectualism that is characteristic of right wing populism.