If Trump wasn't a New Yorker

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Would he have performed better or worse in the primary or general?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

This question is so hypothetical as Trump became famous because he is a New Yorker. I don't know if he could have become such a huge tycoon in another big city. The only one that I could think of is Chicago, where is attitude would be a good fit too.

If he were a Chicagoan, he would perhaps have performed worse in New England and a bit better in Wisconsin instead.

[Fuzzy Bear]

If Trump weren't a New Yorker, he wouldn't have been the big star with the media buzz around him all of these years.  Folks like Lee Iacocca, Mark Cuban, Carly Fiorina, and Meg Whitman never got the Presidential hype Trump got.

People treat Trump as some sort of Hollywood Star that lucked into the Presidency because people are stupid.  They haven't been following history.  Donald Trump has been a major entrepreneur and head of a large business organization since the late 1970s; a business organization that he grew and kept intact through tough times and mistakes from overreach.  Folks across the political spectrum have been touting Trump as a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate since 1988.  Some of these folks are from the same media circles that bash him daily today.  Trump has LONG been viewed as a guy who was Presidential timber; a guy who would bring a unique (and, in the opinion of some, needed) perspective to the Presidency.  How he got there was by doing what he did in MANHATTAN!  Manhattan IS "New York, NY"; people from the outer boroughs of the City of New York refer to Manhattan as "the city", and there's a reason for it.  It's the media capital of America, and Trump has built his share of it. 

[uti2]

If Trump weren't a New Yorker, he wouldn't have been the big star with the media buzz around him all of these years.  Folks like Lee Iacocca, Mark Cuban, Carly Fiorina, and Meg Whitman never got the Presidential hype Trump got.

People treat Trump as some sort of Hollywood Star that lucked into the Presidency because people are stupid.  They haven't been following history.  Donald Trump has been a major entrepreneur and head of a large business organization since the late 1970s; a business organization that he grew and kept intact through tough times and mistakes from overreach.  Folks across the political spectrum have been touting Trump as a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate since 1988.  Some of these folks are from the same media circles that bash him daily today.  Trump has LONG been viewed as a guy who was Presidential timber; a guy who would bring a unique (and, in the opinion of some, needed) perspective to the Presidency.  How he got there was by doing what he did in MANHATTAN!  Manhattan IS "New York, NY"; people from the outer boroughs of the City of New York refer to Manhattan as "the city", and there's a reason for it.  It's the media capital of America, and Trump has built his share of it. 

Perot was from Texas.

[Fuzzy Bear]

If Trump weren't a New Yorker, he wouldn't have been the big star with the media buzz around him all of these years.  Folks like Lee Iacocca, Mark Cuban, Carly Fiorina, and Meg Whitman never got the Presidential hype Trump got.

People treat Trump as some sort of Hollywood Star that lucked into the Presidency because people are stupid.  They haven't been following history.  Donald Trump has been a major entrepreneur and head of a large business organization since the late 1970s; a business organization that he grew and kept intact through tough times and mistakes from overreach.  Folks across the political spectrum have been touting Trump as a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate since 1988.  Some of these folks are from the same media circles that bash him daily today.  Trump has LONG been viewed as a guy who was Presidential timber; a guy who would bring a unique (and, in the opinion of some, needed) perspective to the Presidency.  How he got there was by doing what he did in MANHATTAN!  Manhattan IS "New York, NY"; people from the outer boroughs of the City of New York refer to Manhattan as "the city", and there's a reason for it.  It's the media capital of America, and Trump has built his share of it. 

Perot was from Texas.

Trump is Perot in many ways.  His core constituency is the Perot constituency (a mostly GOP group) which he built on.

Perot was a guy who was a defense billionaire who had a following with veterans groups, and who (A) financed his own third party and (B) got a boost from folks who wanted to dump Bush 43 and install a Democratic President.  Trump's performance was far more impressive than Perot's because (A) he was able to stay on task and not quit and (B) actually get nominated by a major party.  Perot got traction because of disenchantment with both parties, but he never would have gotten the GOP nomination, never, ever, not even in 1996 against Bill Clinton (assuming he hadn't run 3rd party in 1992). 

[Mr. Smith]

He would've lost due to not being able to flip The Rust Belt.

[uti2]

He would've lost due to not being able to flip The Rust Belt.

Wouldn't being from the Midwest have a similar effect as being from the Northeast in that context?

[SWE]

He would've lost due to not being able to flip The Rust Belt.

"You know, I was going to vote for Hillary, but then I found out Donald Trump is from Manhattan, so clearly he understands me."
-Your typical rust belt voter, apparently?

[Fuzzy Bear]

Being a New York billionaire gave Trump his platform, and mastery of the media.

Trump knows things about politics no one else seems to grasp.  Is there any better explanation for why he won?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Clinton would have won NY 61-33. That's really about it.