I'm not an American, but here on the 'Old Continent' we get every 4 years a lot of coverage of the US elections. I certainly don't want anyone to tell what to think, but maybe you guys are interested in the perspective of an European. For me Trump symoblises a 'Europeanising' of the conservatives in the US. What I mean is that a lot of people argued over the last decades that unlike Europe the US is not secularising. But I think Trump is a symbol of it. He doesn't seem to be religious or pretending to be, unlike some other conservative candidates. Still, he gets the majority of votes.
Trump is somewhat like Berlusconi, if you have ever heard of him. He is also a grand populist, charismatic and knows exactely what people want to hear. At the same time he is known for his extravagances, but they are not hurting him. The reason is that people seem to not care about that anymore. Btw, on the democratic side the same can be seen. Both candidates are not known to be super religious and are actually supporting policies many religious groups are hostile to, like gay marriage.
This makes me believe that religion as an important factor in the US is slowly on its way out. In many European countries religion is more heritage than anything else and resentment towards other religions like Islam is mainly about 'we-against-them'.
(Posted Mar 16, 2016)