Trump reached the presidency without party allegiance or elite endorsement

Evidence

Over most of his life, Trump was neither a Democrat nor a Republican. He campaigned for the Reform Party nomination in 1999 (hoping to enlist another television celebrity, Oprah Winfrey, as his vice presidential running mate). He considered challenging George W. Bush in 2004, saying on CNN, “In many cases I probably identify more as a Democrat.” He is an accidental partisan who opportunistically ran for president on the Republican ticket and confessed, “I’m not sure I got there through deep analysis.… When I give speeches sometimes I’ll sign autographs and I’ll get to talk to people and learn a lot about the party.” He ran against sixteen primary challengers, whom he gleefully emasculated. He won without the support of the national Republican leadership, party elites, or donors who were in anguish over his campaign, fearful that his dark, racist, and sexist rhetoric would be a long-term disaster for the party. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 179

Categorization

• QUESTION: Claims of the Reform Party run in 1999 and a 2004 Bush challenge could be worth verifying as exact dates/nominations pursued vs. floated.
• XREF: connects to: New York elites never accepted Trump despite his wealth and property development — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 419

Broader Connections

• New York elites never accepted Trump despite his wealth and property development #corroborates (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 419