Meta: Who predicted Trump?

[AltWorlder]

On this forum, were there any early posts that didn't dismiss Trump outright, and accidentally saw him come to prominence?

I just found a couple of unintentional ones

from the "Best" Possible Election thread:

Entertaining?

George Clooney (Democratic nominee) and Donald Trump (GOP nominee)

from the War of the Roses future history thread (Trump disappears in the post after):

Running Start

Surprisingly, Governor Pawlenty became one of the first prospective candidates to enter the race, forming an exploratory committee in March. At the time, Pawlenty was joined only by businessman Herman Cain and Speaker Gingrich. Pawlenty's decision expedited the thought process of his prospective opponents. Several candidates occupying a similar niche within the Republican Party, such as Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator John Thune, have poured cold water on the idea of a campaign, voicing their preference for the legislature. Governor Mitch Daniels, on the other hand, remains open to the possibility, and is continuing to visit early primary states. Of the Southern pols, including Governor Haley Barbour, Governor Bobby Jindal, and Senator Jim DeMint, the 800-pound gorilla in the room seems to be less Pawlenty's underwhelming candidacy than Governor Perry's impending entrance into the race.

The strangest event of the contest thus far has been mogul Donald Trump's meteoric ascent to the top of the polls, based solely on prominent dog-whisling. This is probably a harbinger of things to come.

Gallup Poll
Donald Trump 16%
Mike Huckabee 16%
Rick Perry 10%
Tim Pawlenty 9%
Newt Gingrich 6%
Ron Paul 6%
Michelle Bachmann 6%
Mitch Daniels 6%
Scott Brown 2%
Herman Cain 1%

But perhaps the best one is this thread by Napoleon, wherein he is called a troll:
is it Trump time?

Who was subsequently called out for it in at least another thread, this one.

Scratch that, he also suggests that Trump (or Ron Paul) is the 2016 Republican nominee for president in this thread, but offhandedly, because the point of that one is to discuss Romney's return as a VP candidate. That, perhaps, is the best thread unintentionally predicting the state of things.

Good times.

[AltWorlder]

from If you could pick the Republican nominee in 2016

I would choose Donald Trump and have him focus on New York and California.

Donald Trump 2016? in December 2013

[Türkisblau]

All of AAD.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Definitely not me

Trump's bounce should stick around until the 1st debate. After that he will fade quickly.

[IceSpear]

I never predicted Trump would do as well as he's doing (I doubt anyone did, unless they were trolling), but I did predict he could see a surge at some point:

Best:
Kasich
Walker
Paul

Overrated:
Bush
Rubio
Christie

Worst:
Trump
Palin
Cruz

Are we treating a literal one percenter (As in 1% in the polls) as a serious candidate?

I was just going by the Wikipedia article showing who has "publicly expressed interest". Besides, Kasich is at 1% usually too. Trump actually led in some GOP primary polls in 2011.

link

[Ljube]

Not me, but I jumped on the TRUMP bandwagon as soon as he announced.

[RI]

Looking at my old posts, I was skeptical of a Trump candidacy in early June, but by June 23 more or less thought Trump might win NH. By a month later:

There's no stopping the Trump Train.

But if you're really looking for old threads, check out this one.

[Lief 🗽]

I thought it was obvious by July/August that TRUMP was the frontrunner and favorite for the nomination.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

My new namesake is thanks to RFayette putting this in his signature -

Junk poll - they forgot to include Trump. He's inevitable.

I will now accept my accolades.

[cwt]

Nate Silver

(just kidding)

[BaconBacon96]

My very first post, back in December 2013 was asking about this possibility. Although I admit even I was sceptical

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=183910.0

[The Other Castro]

My new namesake is thanks to RFayette putting this in his signature -

Junk poll - they forgot to include Trump. He's inevitable.

I will now accept my accolades.

Not so fast my fishy friend.

[tmthforu94]

FWIW, a post I made in Napoleon's thread in reference to a Trump candidacy when almost everybody dismissed it:

I think he stands a shot

[Kingpoleon]

After just gazing through Trump's ontheissues page I think his key to some electoral success, as an independent or third party candidate, would be to play the role of Pat Buchanan or Ross Perot and champion economic protectionism along with fiscal conservatism.  If he stays on message about these issues then I would imagine that he could do well with blue-collar whites and high-school educated whites in the Rust belt and South. 

[AltWorlder]

With some tinkering of the Search function, I was able to find posts from 2004 discussing Trump running as a Reform party candidate, saying how he's a libertarian. Ah, those were some far-off days.

[The Mikado]

I first started taking Trump seriously here in July 2015, and by August 2015 I took him seriously as something other than a flavor of the month.

The prediction I'm most proud of this cycle was in late September 2015 when I was insisting that Trump's dip in the wake of the September 16th debate was a temporary dip and not a "collapse" as many here were claiming, and also in November 2015 when I was saying that Trump was not being replaced by Carson but that Trump would go back up after Carson collapsed.

[This account no longer in use.]

Better question: Who, if anyone, predicted Fiorina?