It's hard to say what's more shocking: the outrageous remarks property magnate Donald Trump has made since he announced his presidential candidacy or that he's performing so well in opinion polls. Trump's bull in a china shop candidacy is not surprising given his brash persona as the "You're fired!" boss from reality TV's The Apprentice.
His comments about Mexicans when he announced his presidential candidacy on June 16th has certainly made him stand out in a crowded field of Republican candidates in the 2016 campaign.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you, they're not sending you," he said, pointing to supporters during his bizarre, meandering campaign launch speech. "They're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us, they're bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Trump (69) promised to build a "great wall" and make Mexico pay for it because of the kind of people the country was sending to the US. His remarks have caused a diplomatic storm with America's neighbour to the south and the estimated 53 million Latinos (17 per cent of the population) living in the United States. His comments are designed to show the New Yorker is tough on immigration, which appeals to many conservatives to the right, but they are coming off as insulting and at some remove from fact.
Television network NBC Universal dropped Trump as host of The Apprentice once he declared his presidential candidacy but went further following his comments, giving him a dose of his own "you're fired!" treatment. The network dumped his Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants, saying in a statement that "respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values".
“Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBC Universal is ending its business relationship with Mr Trump,” the statement said.
Univision, the leading Spanish-language network broadcasting to millions of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the US, dropped the Miss USA pageant from its schedule on July 12th because of Trump’s “offensive remarks about Mexican immigrants”.
Mexico's largest television network Grupo Televisa declared that Trump had "offended the entire Mexican population", while Ora, a TV network owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, called his comments "racist".
Rather than distance himself from his initial remarks, Trump has continued digging. Challenged on his comments by CNN news host Don Lemon on Wednesday, Trump stood by them. "Well, if you look at the statistics of people coming, you look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything coming in illegally into this country – it's mind-boggling!" he said.
He cited statistics in an article on the news website Fusion, which Trump argued proved his claims: “Go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape. It’s unbelievable when you look at what’s going on. So all I’m doing is telling the truth.”
When Lemon pointed out that the Fusion article said that 80 per cent of Central American girls and women crossing Mexico en route to the United States are raped along the way, Trump shot back: “Well, somebody’s doing the raping, Don! I mean somebody’s doing it! Who’s doing the raping? Who’s doing the raping?”
There are no government-recorded statistics on the ethnicity of convicted rapists in the United States. The Washington Post checked research on the subject of crime and immigrants and found several academic studies, including work by the University of Massachusetts, Northwestern University and the University of California, showing low levels of violent crime and prison incarceration among immigrants.
Far from damaging him, the controversy around Trump has sent his poll numbers soaring. A CNN national poll put him second in the packed field of Republican candidates, at 12 per cent, seven points behind frontrunner Jeb Bush, George W's brother and the former Florida governor. Recent polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two key early-voting states in the presidential race, put him second there, too.
The frenzied nature of the Republican race isn't helping matters. The number of declared major candidates rose to 14 this week with the entry of another brash contender, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. At least two more are still expected to declare – Ohio governor John Kasich and Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin.
It is just 34 days until the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, and the debate host, Fox News, has said that it will only allow the leading 10 candidates, based on national polls, to debate. This could well encourage further incendiary comments from candidates looking to make the crucial first debate. In the Republican stakes, to get noticed in the crowd, it seems, is to get ahead.