Donald Trump, real estate billionaire, former host of Celebrity Apprentice, and the Republican Party's frontrunner in a crowded 17 candidate field, has stated multiple times that he is willing to run as an Independent or 3rd Party candidate.
The first time he stated this was more of a threat. He thought the Republican Party was not treating him nicely, and if they continued to do this he would just break away from the party and run as a 3rd party candidate (in which we are including as being an Independent)
The most recent time came in the GOP Debate. The moderator asked the candidates to raise their hand if they wouldn't pledge to run as a third party candidate in the case they didn't win the Republican nomination. Only one man raised his hand. Trump.
In the case he doesn't win the nomination, he is still considered a long shot candidate, or feels he is not being treated fairly by the Republicans, Trump apparently will run as a 3rd party candidate.
This would be the Democratic Party's dream. With controversy over Clinton's email server and with possible worry over having a socialist president in Bernie Sanders, or the fact that the only Democrat candidate under 60 so far is Martin O'Malley (aged 52), the Democrats could've feared losing this election. However, this would save their election chances.
Trump is not a conservative. Nor is he a liberal. He is somewhere between and he will definitely take away some of the Democrat vote. However, he would almost certainly split the Republican vote. We could see a repeat of the US Presidential election of 1912.
In 1912, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt challenged the incumbent President William Howard Taft for the Republican nomination. Shockingly, the popular Roosevelt lost to his former protege Taft.
He decided to run as a candidate for the Progressive (or Bull-Moose) Party in the 1912 election. The Democrat candidate was Thomas Woodrow Wilson from New Jersey.
Now, we have to take in mind that all of the 4 major candidates were liberal. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were both Progressives and Woodrow Wilson was between a very leftist Democrat and a Socialist. Socialist Party candidate Eugene V Debs was an actual socialist.
Nevertheless, Debs didn't get much popular votes and no electoral votes. Roosevelt and Taft split the Republican votes and electoral votes. Wilson was able to get away with a win in the crowded election and ended up as the 28th President of the United States.
If Roosevelt hadn't ran as a 3rd Party candidate, Wilson would've gotten more votes, sure, but Taft might've won the election. Might've.
If Donald Trump wants to try to do this in 2016, that's his choice. However, he will probably not win the election and the Republican candidate probably won't.
In the case of a third party Trump presidential campaign, Trump will essentially hand the election over to the Democrats without a fight.
UPDATE: Donald Trump has declared he will support the eventual Republican nominee and not run for a third party bid or as an Independent.
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