Feature: Controversy-laden Trump marches towards White House

Donning a pair of white pants with big words "Trump the power", Janusz Bikupek was eager to show his loyalty to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

"He is smart and speaks truth. He must be the best candidate for the president of the United States," Bikupek, a glass company worker, told Xinhua Friday outside of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, holding a placard.

Hours later, the real estate mogul celebrated his big win in five key states' primaries on Tuesday night at his secretive Mediterranean seashore club, a great leap towards locking up the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

He is making what once seemed inconceivable a virtual reality.

Fernando Gonzalz, a first-generation Cuban immigrant who has been living in Miami since the 1960s, praised Trump for never hiding his views on the controversial issues.

"Obama deported a lot of people but he never openly said that. Trump tells the truth," Gonzalz, 76, said outside Versailles restaurant, a popular place for Cuban food and social gathering in Miami.

"America needs good people, not bad immigrants," Gonzalz said.

Trump has sparked widespread debate for repeatedly vowing, if elected president, to deport about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

Allan Lichtman, an American political historian who teaches at American University, said Trump is tapping into something that runs deep in American history -- the fear of foreign influences.

At least a segment of Americans has always been able to find a scapegoat for discontent and stir up opposition to the scapegoated group, he argued.

"Of course, all of these fears have proven totally unfounded as all of these peoples have integrated themselves into America and become important contributors to American life and society," he said.

With the U.S. economy slowly recovering from the financial crisis and the job market staying lukewarm, Trump called for imposing more than 40 percent duties on imports from countries like Mexico to save American jobs.

Carlos Leal, a real estate developer and furniture importer, told Xinhua that Trump is using other countries as convenient tools to win votes.

"He knew clearly that the other countries do not create the problem. He is just using that to reach out to the people who did not benefit from free trade," he said.

Philip Wallach, a political scientist with the Brookings Institution, said a big part of it is frustrated, downscale, white Americans who feel opportunities have been shut off to them that used to be open to them.

"The financial crisis obviously has still lingered on in many ways, our percentage of people working in the labor force is still low, even though our unemployment rate is better. There's a lot of economic frustrations," he added.

Experts say anything can happen if the Republican Party is forced to nominate Trump as their candidate, but winning the White House in a general election is a far different thing than winning a party nomination.

Stephen Hess, a senior political scholar with the Brookings Institution, said Trump would have a very hard time beating Hillary Clinton.

"You can't win an election when you don't have anybody but white men with you. Never has a candidate had so few people of color who are going to be for him, and that is very significant," he told Xinhua.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Trump winning the U.S. presidency is considered one of the top 10 risks facing the world, although it does not expect Trump to defeat Clinton who it sees as "his most likely Democratic contender".

The research firm warned Trump could disrupt the global economy and heighten political and security risks in the United States. Endit