This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on May 2, 2016. A lot of Republicans are walking around in a daze these days, trying to figure out the implications of Donald Trump becoming their presumptive presidential nominee. The remaining 10 primaries, starting with Indiana this week and Nebraska and West Virginia next Tuesday, are just icing on an already baked cake. One can argue endlessly that Trump shouldn’t be the GOP nominee and could have been stopped, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. The back of the “Stop Trump” movement was broken last week. With the Democratic nomination a fait accompli as well, and most general-election polling showing Hillary Clinton leading Trump by between 7 and 11 points, the question is less about the outcome of the presidential contest and more about the fallout. In 2012, Mitt Romney managed to win the independent vote by a 5-point margin, 50 to 45 percent. With Trump’s negatives among independents even worse than Clinton’s, it’s doubtful that Trump will perform better than Romney among that group. What’s more disturbing
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