News analysis: Donald Trump could galvanize GOP hardcore base, but alienate crucial voting blocks

While U.S. billionaire Donald Trump is riling up many populists in the Republican Party (GOP) base, he is also turning off minorities and others. This could hurt the party's brand in the 2016 race to the White House, experts said.

Trump has stirred controversy for always saying exactly what's on his mind, no matter who he insults or what kind of controversy he elicits. That includes making statements that his critics call outrageous, such as linking Mexican immigrants with criminality. His plan to tackle illegal immigration, which includes building a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, is seen by many of his fans as big and bold, and by others as ridiculous and unworkable.

Some conservative pundits have said he could breathe new life into the party and galvanize the GOP base to come out and vote in droves on election day, even if he's not on the ballot, as he's gotten many conservatives excited about a number of issues.

Trump's fans believe the candidate is a fresh voice that represents them better than the establishment, and among them are those who think current leaders are doing nothing as the country goes down the drain.

While many experts thought Trump wouldn't last this long, he still leads the pack of other candidates by a significant margin, according to the most recent Real Clear Politics poll average.

"Trump could help Republicans turn out (their) hardcore base. These are white, older voters who live in the South and Midwest. But his divisive rhetoric would make it much more difficult for the GOP to attract women, young people, and Latinos," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"His plan to forcibly deport over 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally will destroy Republican hopes of enlarging their percentage of the Latino vote. That group is growing in importance and many of them reside in crucial swing states. Trump's proposal will make it virtually impossible for the GOP to do better with those voters," West added.

Indeed, what many view as anti-immigrant rhetoric will not do much to help the GOP revamp its image into a party viewed as more inclusive of minorities. Rightly or wrongly, the party is seen as one made up of old, white men, and the GOP needs to reverse that perception if it wants to survive in America's increasingly multi-cultural demographic landscape, where whites will no longer comprise the majority in the decades to come, experts said.

Some experts said a Trump presidency would look like a three-ring circus.

"Trump, because of his ego, and because of his business and celebrity background, would turn the Oval Office into a 24-7 television reality show," Harlan Ullman, chairman of the Killowen Group and senior advisor at the Atlantic Council and Business Executives for National Security,told Xinhua.

"You have a celebrity who could change the nature of American politics to turn it into a television reality show," he added. Endi