- We'll probably be making a decision
in January or February, we're going to see what happens.
The polls have come out, they've been
unbelievable strong, they say I'd win.
- [McKay Coppins] The interesting thing about Trump
is that he's been threatening to run for President
for basically 25 years, all the way back to the 80s,
when he gave a speech in New Hampshire and saw
a bunch of newspapers all over the country write stories
wondering or speculating about whether he would run.
This is the first time he's actually filed papers
and is out on the campaign trail.
And I think a lot of people are surprised by that.
(suspenseful music)
- There are a lot of reasons for Donald Trump's
popularity right now in the Republican Party.
One of them, I think, boils down to the celebrity effect.
If you look at the polls, he does best
with voters who are not as likely to vote
in Republican primaries.
So imagine a pollster calling you up,
and reading you a list of 17 different candidates
and then asking who you support:
chances are, Donald Trump may be the only person you've heard of.
- I'm not using the lobbyists, I'm not using donors, I don't care.
I'm really rich, I'll show you that next time.
- Trump appeals to people's ideal of
what they would do if they were rich.
They would have fancy suits and
big, private airplanes, and hang out with supermodels.
Trump's entire persona is sort of geared toward
the dreams and fantasies of what wealth is like
for the average blue-collar, middle-class worker.
- I guess I cause controversy, and for no reason.
- A lot of people don't like the political-correctness rules
that govern how we talk, and what we can say
and Donald Trump flies in the face of all of those rules.
All the way back to his announcement speech,
when he made a lot of really
crazy comments about Mexican immigrants.
Or when he attacked John McCain's war service.
Or when he got into a feud with Megyn Kelly at Fox News
and suggested that during the debate she was menstruating.
He is the billionaire who doesn't play by your rules
and isn't governed by political-correctness.
And that's what a lot of people like about him.
- Mexico is sending people that Mexico doesn't want.
And everybody knows that's what I was saying.
- One reason Trump gets away with saying
such outrageous, ludicrous things all the time
is because Donald Trump has a policy
where he never apologizes for anything.
And by virtue of never apologizing,
it makes it so that people just assume that
it just wasn't that big of a deal.
- I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative,
I'm running, I'm in first-place
by a lot, it seems, according to the polls.
- [Coppins] Can he win the nomination? Sure!
(laughs) He could win the nomination,
I think most people would still say it's unlikely.
If you think back to fall of 2011,
Rick Perry was leading in the polls at that time.
Of course he didn't become the nominee.
Fall of 2007, Rudy Giuliani was leading in the polls.
A lot of people that lead in the polls
at this point in the campaign,
don't actually end up becoming the nominee.
(musical tone)