Trump brags, inflames and derides — but how will he do in Iowa?

DES MOINES - He slings insults left and right.

He derides anyone who dares challenge him, from elected officials and his political rivals to the media. He speaks his mind with total disregard for political correctness or sensitivity.

He stokes anti-Washington sentiment to a fever pitch.

And he leads a huge field of Republican presidential candidates in national polls.

Donald Trump has been a wrecking ball during roughly six weeks as an official candidate for president. The billionaire businessman's announcement speech - given at a New York City hotel that bears his name - was a 45-minute manifesto in which he called America's leaders 'stupid” and said most immigrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are drug traffickers, criminals and rapists.

He constantly brags about his immense wealth. At the Family Leadership Summit in Ames on July 18, he said U.S. Sen. and Vietnam prisoner of war John McCain is considered a war hero only 'because he was captured.”

Trump's supporters are soaking it up, while his fellow Republican candidates and some GOP officials are growing concerned his comments will stain the brand. Some question whether Trump is a viable candidate, whether he can turn discontented poll respondents into caucus supporters.

But Trump requires neither the approval of the political class nor money from donors to sustain his campaign.

So the Trump train continues, full steam ahead.

voter frustration

Trump's unfiltered delivery has endeared him to supporters. He has tapped into the frustrations of people who are disenchanted with the federal government and embrace someone who is not a typical politician.

Just take a quick glance at some of the comments from supporters on Trump's Facebook page. (Comments are unedited.)

l 'They just don't get it.the American people do not believe the career politicians any longer and we want them OUT NOW. The more they talk (lie) the higher Trumps numbers go!”

l 'There are positive changes that are happening in our country that even if Donald Trump is not elected we can still thank him for those changes. He has broken free the chains of political correctness and has given a voice to those who won't speak.”

l 'Keep up the good fight Donald. You may be a little rough around the edges but you tell the TRUTH and the TRUTH shall set us free.”

Those sentiments are echoed thousands of times over.

'He is not a career politician. He's a businessman who gets the job done, and he doesn't sugarcoat anything,” said Tana Goertz, one of Trump's campaign chairs in Iowa and a former contestant on his reality TV show, 'The Apprentice.” 'Some people, like myself, love that and love that approach. I'm a no-nonsense person myself. Cut to the chase. And that's refreshing.

'What I'm noticing is people have never experienced anything like this. It's very refreshing to have someone who is calling it like it is.”

Even in the wake of comments that cause firestorms, Trump has been undamaged. Polls released last week after his comment about McCain showed little to no impact on support for Trump.

'Just in the last couple of days it seems to have solidified a lot of our support,” said Chuck Laudner, a longtime political operative who is running Trump's campaign in Iowa. 'When the media and the politicians lash out, it just feeds into the reason that Trump's doing well in the polls in the first place.

'He's not the kind of politician they've seen before. He's tapping into these people, these voters (who) want something different. They want something new because whatever they've been delivered …

it's not working.

'The more the media and the political elite howl, the stronger Trump gets.”

WORRIES AMONG REPUBLICANS

While Trump's cavalier style has endeared him to some, it concerns others in the Republican Party.

Some in the GOP worry Trump's comments will reflect poorly upon the party. Many of the other Republicans running for president denounced Trump's comment about McCain, none more so than Rick Perry, who last week in a speech called Trump 'a cancer on conservatism” that 'must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.”

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he is not yet concerned about Trump. Kaufmann called campaigns a 'contact sport” that come with 'some elbows thrown.”

'I've been doing a lot of thinking about that, and I guess in general I don't have a problem with the way he's campaigning, unless he crosses a line, and in my opinion, he has crossed a line twice,” Kaufmann said, referring to Trump's comments on McCain and Mexican immigrants. 'I think it's a risky style. I don't think it's a style that serves him long-term. …

It's a style he's going to have to live with.

'I'm not worried long-term about it, but I will not hesitate to strongly disagree if he crosses that line again.”

Kaufmann said his primary concern is protecting Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses and assuring other states that Iowa Republicans are taking seriously all the candidates and all the issues. It is only within that context that Kaufmann worries about candidate Trump.

'I think Donald Trump could be a positive force to all of this, even with some of his attacks,” Kaufmann said. 'I just hope I don't have to go to the public and media yet one more time and condemn him. I've got better things to do with my time than condemn what most people realize they shouldn't be saying.”

Matt Strawn, a former Iowa party chairman who went on to co-found the company Next Generation Public Affairs, said he thinks Trump's 'unique” campaign style will not stain the Republican Party. But he said some Republicans are concerned about how Trump will conduct himself during the upcoming nationally televised presidential debates.

'The Trump brand is so unique that I think, largely, people don't associate others with the things coming out of his mouth,” Strawn said. 'I think there's some degree of trepidation that many Republicans I talk to have regarding the comments he's made regarding Hispanics and minorities that, quite frankly, are not remotely in line with what a majority of Republicans believe.”

Can he win the caucuses?

Through everything he has said and done in his short time on the campaign trail, Trump continues to perform well in national polls. He topped an ABC News/Washington Post poll published last week, dominating the rest of the field. In the poll, Trump was chosen by 24 percent of Republican-leaning respondents; the next-highest was Scott Walker with 13 percent.

Despite that, a At least one Iowa political scientist does not have an optimistic view of Trump's potential in the caucuses.

'I've said from the beginning he has no chance of winning,” said Kedron Bardwell, a professor and chairman of the political science department at Simpson College in Indianola.

Bardwell cautioned Trump's strong showing in national polls might be a smoke screen. He said national polls are 'embarrassingly bad at predicting primary (election) success.”

Support in national polls often can be traced to name recognition and more accurate gauges are polls in early-voting states, where Trump's results have been more of a mixed bag, he said.

'I don't know what to make of the whole thing,” Bardwell said. 'Everybody keeps saying, ‘Well, now he's going to implode. Now he's going to implode.' After a few debates at the state level, in Iowa and New Hampshire, that's when we're going to know whether this candidate is going to have any traction.”

Strawn said it is incumbent upon Trump to turn that national polling success into caucus support. He said 'the jury is still out” as to whether Trump has shown he can do that.

For example, Strawn pointed to the Trump campaign's presence on RAGBRAI, an annual weeklong bicycling event across the state that which ended Saturday. While drumming up attention and support can be positive, Strawn noted not all RAGBRAI riders are from Iowa, not all Iowa riders are Republicans and not all Republican riders are active in the caucuses.

'That begs the question of the type of Iowans that seem to be responding to Trump's message. Are they those folks that you can ultimately convince to turn out on a snowy, icy Feb. 1 night? That will be the ultimate test,” Strawn said. 'It's one thing to tell a pollster, ‘Yes, he's sticking it to the man, and I'm completely for him.' It's another thing to explain to that guy why he has to show up at his precinct in front of his friends and neighbors and do the exact same thing.

'Maybe he can do it. We're going to find out together.”