Trump may be 'impossible to take down,' top Republican pollster says [View all]

[Gloria]

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/inside_the_mind_of_the_trump_supporter.html

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A new focus group commissioned by GOP pollster Frank Luntz shows Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is virtually invulnerable to attack by rival 2016 candidates and the media, leading Luntz to say that it is now "totally conceivable" that Trump will become the Republican Party's nominee for president.

"The Republican leadership needs to wake up and see that the grass roots has abandoned them," said Luntz, the head of Luntz Global, a top GOP polling and messaging consultancy.

"This is a different cat," Luntz added. "It's not like Ross Perot in 1992, where people were simply unhappy with the two major parties; they're choosing Trump affirmatively. Honestly, my legs are shaking looking at these numbers. All those people who think he's going to implode are wrong. He's not going away."

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Most notably, the intensity of the group's support for Trump was matched only by their dislike of establishment GOP candidates and politics as usual. At one point, a woman named Rhiannon explained her support of Trump by lamenting that "it appears that there's only one party." A whopping 25 of 29 participants in the focus group immediately and heartily agreed with her.

"Nobody is listening to us," echoed another supporter identified only as 'Suzanne.' &quot But) he's listening to us, he knows what we think and he's successful just like we want to be."

Normally, such a small group of voters might not be worthy of much attention 441 days ahead of the general election, but Luntz's polling acumen dates back more than 20 years: He correctly predicted that Perot's entry into the 1992 presidential race would deliver the White House to Bill Clinton. His research also initially dismissed Trump, leading the mogul to all but accuse him of trying to shake him down.

"I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn't want to hire him commercially," Trump said of Luntz in an interview with Business Insider shortly after the August 7th Fox News debate. "I think it's disgusting ... I think he uses his power at Fox to maybe — to get work."

On Monday night, the group of mostly college-educated Trump supporters — 17 women, 12 men — was largely Republican, but also featured some Democrats and independents. What united them was a willingness to trust Trump whether or not they fully agreed with his policies, or in some cases, regardless of whether he even had articulated any. Twenty-three of the 29 participants said that they were more persuaded by his persona, while just six said it was Trump's policies that sold them on him.

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