Destroying the Competition: Will Donald Trump launch a third-party candidacy?

If Donald Trump becomes an independent, the Republican party will largely suffer.

Donald Trump has made numerous headlines during his campaign, so far. He has received criticsm from both the Republicans and the Democrats; it can even be said that the Republican party is "shooing" Trump away, making him an outsider. Is this the smartest move for Republicans?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - By publicly tearing Donald Trump down and excluding him from the party, Republicans may convince Trump to form a third-party candidacy as an independent.

"The Republican Party establishment is playing with nitroglycerine when it goes after Donald Trump and tries to minimize him and exclude him," Ralph Nader, who has run for president multiple times as a third-party candidate said in an interview with CNN. "Because a jilted Donald Trump as a third-party candidate can blow the presidential race wide open and turn it into a three way race."

Becoming a third-party candidate is an extremely difficult process, according to CNN, including the process of gathering a massive amount of signatures from each of the 50 states to gain ballot access. However, it is not an impossible task.

"There is just a sense of ineffectiveness of the two-party system. So I think he would do better than expected if he were in the debates and if he were considered viable," Clay Mulford, 1992 independent candidate Ros Perot's son-in-law said. "And having money helps."

According to CNN, adding Trump in as a third-party would damage Jeb Bush's candidacy in the current Republican field.

"He'd be the one person that would probably fit the bill. He's not really a Republican, he's not a Democrat," said former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley of Minnesota. "[Independents] decide the election every four years and if all of them or most of them go to Trump, that leaves the Republicans too small of a base to have any chance of winning."

With Trump's largely debated and controversial statements over illegal immigrants and Senator John McCain's prisoner of war experience, the GOP has already publicly excluded Trump from their exclusive group.

"There is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably," said RNC spokesman Sean Spicer.

Trump has addressed the possibility of becoming a third-party candidate with CNN's Anderson Cooper by stating, his decision depends on "how I'm being treated by the Republicans."

"I think the damage is already done to a large extent," expressed Bill Hillsman, a political consultant who has worked for a number of independent candidates, to CNN. "All the people who said well, his campaign is over now and blasted him for some of his previous comments, many of which he's walked back, they already have just pretty much dismissed this guy and the polls are saying otherwise."

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