In the 2016 election, Donald Trump consistently benefited from the inability to imagine him winning. That belief shaped the Republican primary. The driving dynamic for the primary was the competition between the non-Trump candidates to narrow the race to one on one with Trump. It seemed obvious that the Republican Party would not nominate someone who was a bankrupt casino owner who lost the Reform Party nomination for president to Pat Buchanan in 2000, was a maxed-out donor to Anthony Weiner, had attacked Republicans for being against abortion, had bragged that his building was now the tallest
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