YOU might reasonably expect the Presidential ambitions of Donald Trump to be dead and buried by now.

Everyone I meet seems to have their own reason to dislike the Republican candidate.

14 Success . . . Trump is trailing in the polls across the country, but not by much Credit: Reuters

Women regard Donald as a sexist pig with an attitude to their sex that belongs in the Dark Ages.

Ethnic minorities believe Trump, with his talk of building a Great Wall on the border of the US and Mexico, has racist tendencies.

And don’t get me started on what ethnic minority women think of Trump.

Personally, as the son of a war hero, I have always disliked Trump for his belligerent patriotism when, given the chance to serve his country in the Vietnam War, he chose to stay home and do his hair.

Yet with just over a month to the elections, and despite his weak, rambling performance on the first Presidential debate, the polls suggest the race to the White House is still too close to call.

Despite his flaws — and they are manifold — there is still a very good chance that Obama will be replaced by Trump and Hillary Clinton will get left out for history’s bin men.

How has this happened?

Clinton’s casual contempt for Trump’s supporters echoes David Cameron’s views on Ukip as, “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”

Clinton has kept Trump in this race with her sneering comments about anyone who supports him.

She derided Trump’s supporters as, “a basket of deplorables . . . the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. Some of those folks, they are irredeemable”.

14 Ranting . . . Clinton's comments about half the US electorate have damaged her chances Credit: Getty Images

Is Clinton a more experienced, rational figure than Trump?

Of course she is, but she speaks in the voice of an out-of-touch political elite who are far too quick to dismiss the concerns of millions of ordinary men and women.

Clinton’s casual contempt for Trump’s supporters echoes David Cameron’s views on Ukip as, “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”.

But having concerns about immigration doesn’t make you a racist.

And believing that your country’s national identity is worth preserving does not make you a loony.

And distrusting a politician who seems out of touch with your world does not make you a fruitcake.

The millions that Cameron dismissed as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” were hard-working patriots.

And at the EU referendum, they terminated his political career.

Because they — we — were not all ignorant bigots, but decent people who were sick of being ignored by our political masters.

It is not impossible that the same thing could happen in the United States.

14 Rallying cry . . . Trump addresses crowd of supporters Credit: AP:Associated Press

If Hillary Clinton thinks that all Trump supporters are witless rednecks, she is wrong.

But she is also typical of her class.

All across the western world, the concerns of too many ordinary voters are being dismissed by a political elite that takes its power for granted.

There should be tremendous excitement about the prospect of the very first female President.

Yet Clinton seems like a stale, tired option for the White House, the dregs of a political dynasty, the last resort of a party that has been in power for eight years.

14 Problematic . . . Hillary sneers when talking to the media in much the same way David Cameron did Credit: Getty Images

Like Cameron in the EU referendum, Clinton is far too contemptuous about millions of people who simply want the best for their family and their country.

And as Cameron could tell Hillary Clinton, if you laugh too loudly at those ignored millions then one day they will go to the polling booth and bury you.

14 Credit: Steven Klein

APPEARING in Interview magazine, in what my colleague Dan Wootton called, “one of the campest outfits I’ve ever seen”, Tom Hiddleston doesn’t look much like the next James Bond.

But he must be in with a shout of joining the Village People.

The Boss's hidden darkness

IT has never been a secret that when he is on stage Bruce Springsteen feels happy, safe, fulfilled and free – which is why he is the only major act who has routinely played for four or five hours straight.

When I saw him at the Palladium in New York in the late Seventies it felt like a show by The Boss lasted longer than some band’s tours.

14 Warmth . . . my greeting from the mighty Bruce

There was a pure, undiluted joy about Springsteen on stage that night.

What a shock to learn from his new autobiography, Born To Run, that life off stage has been a darker, bleaker experience for Springsteen.

He has black dogs of crushing depression when, he writes, “I can be cruel: I run, I dissemble, I dodge, I weave, I disappear, I return. I rarely apologize.”

14 The Boss . . . Springsteen is still wowing audiences across the world Credit: Getty Images - WireImage

Springsteen embodies the old adage – the music is not there to save the world, the music is there to save your life.

And I know that no rock star ever treated me with such warmth, generosity and kindness as Bruce Springsteen when I showed up backstage unannounced and without an invitation.

I loved his music.

That was the only backstage pass I needed.

I do not know the man.

But like every other Bruce Springsteen fan, I feel that I do.





Apple move proves we're open for business

ACCORDING to Fortune magazine, the most profitable company on the planet is Apple, with profits of £40billion in 2015 – Apple’s most successful year ever.

14 Going places . . . Apple have picked the iconic Battersea Power Station as their new HQ Credit: Getty Images

So what an extraordinary boost to post-Brexit Britain that Apple have decided to spend £9billion restoring Battersea Power Station for their new London headquarters – 1,400 Apple staff will occupy six floors of the iconic building from 2021.

This is surely the greatest vote of confidence in our country since the EU referendum.

Talk about open for business!

Fury puts boxing on ropes

MY copy of the new Boxing Monthly dropped through the letterbox on Thursday, with a most unfortunate front cover.

LET THE FISTS TALK shouts the bold red headline, between the faces of Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko.

FURY AND KLITSCHKO PRIMED FOR WAR.

14 Brash . . . Furys antics threaten to wreck what little credibility boxing has left Credit: Getty Images

Except they are not, because after Boxing Monthly went to press Fury pulled out of their fight for a second time, citing medical issues.

Now the cocaine stories are emerging.

It increasingly feels as though boxing fans are treated like gullible mugs.

The sport that I fell in love with as a child and have loved all my life seems primed to do nothing but self-destruct.

14 Money match . . . Mayweather lands a hit on Pacquiao during their much-hyped bout Credit: AP:Associated Press

Boxing fans waited years to see Floyd Mayweather Junior fight Manny Pacquiao and it was a washout.

We have waited months to see Fury give Klitschko – a decent, honourable man – a rematch.

And now that is down the toilet.

I never dreamed I would say it, but with every new disappointment that boxing drops in my lap, I am becoming a bigger fan of Mixed Martial Arts, the UFC and the whole blood-spangled cage-fighting industry.

14 Attitude . . . what boxing star can match the bombast of UFC fighters like Conor McGregor? Credit: Getty Images

Where is the boxer who matches the visceral excitement of The Notorious Conor McGregor?

Tyson Fury has let fans down yet again.

This feels like yet another nail in boxing’s coffin.

BoJo's big hypocrite

BORIS JOHNSON takes himself off to Turkey and solemnly promises that he will fight for Turkish membership of the European Union.

You could argue that Turkey’s EU membership doesn’t matter a damn to us as we are heading for the exit door.

14 Tub-thumping . . . Boris talks a good game, but his hypocrisy is astounding

But Johnson’s brazenly hypocritical stance is insulting to everyone who fought to get out of the EU, and who was wary of 76 million Turks having the right to make their home in the UK.

Including Boris Johnson.

Our cynical new Foreign Secretary is an embarrassment to everyone who voted to leave the EU.

WHAT heart-warming photographs they were of Karen Danczuk frolicking in the Costa Blanca surf with her hunky Spanish waiter David, and how fortunate a photographer just happened to be passing. I do hope nobody was waiting for their paella. David could have been gone quite a while.

14 Shamed . . . Eleanor Jones, arrested for leaving her tot alone when she went out on holiday Credit: Nick Obank - The Sun

A 25-YEAR-OLD British woman in Majorca is arrested for staying out all night partying while her seven-year-old son was left weeping and alone in their hotel room. And the saddest thing about this squalid little story? Nobody even thinks to ask, “But where was the father?”

Snobby Shami's school shame

BARONESS Shami Chakrabarti, poster girl of the Labour Party’s death throes, came over all coy on Channel 4 news when asked about the rumour that her son had sat the entrance exam for that well-known comprehensive school – Eton.

“You’ve been on the internet too much of late,” she simpered. And is that a “Yes” or a “No” or a “The truth is just too embarrassing to tell”, Shami?

14 Labour collapse . . . Baroness Shami Chakrabati in the Lords Credit: PA:Press Association

Did she try to send her son to Eton or not?

We are none the wiser.

Given the opportunity to deny the rumour, Shami ducked the question that it would have been easy enough to refute.

At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Shami Chakrabarti wowed all the middle class comrades by telling them, “Don’t leave me alone with Essex man!”

But like all the Labour hypocrites who advocate comprehensive education while shipping their little darlings off to private schools, it sounds like Shami Chakrabarti doesn’t mind being left alone with Eton man.