Trump’s presidency not a remote idea!

Republican candidate compares US growth rate with that of India

LOS VEGAS: It is news that will strike fear into the hearts of perhaps half of America and large chunks of the world outside of it. Despite a calamitous week of campaigning, betting markets on the US election are almost a mirror image of those on Britain’s EU referendum at this stage. And they could be pointing to a victory for Donald Trump, reports foreign media. 

Bookmaker William Hill says 71 per cent of the money so far staked is for Democrat Hillary Clinton. But 65 per cent of the bets by number are for the controversial Republican.

That means a lot more punters are putting smaller bets on Trump, almost exactly the same pattern as was seen in the run up to the Brexit vote when the money was for Remain but the majority of bets were for Leave.

The bookie has cut the odds on a Trump victory from 11-2 to 4-1 over the past two days in response to a surge in bets for the reality TV star and businessman turned politician. 

It comes despite a campaign bedevilled and derailed by ugly accusations of sexual abuse on the part of Trump from a growing list of women, together with his claims that the election is somehow being “rigged”. 

Another media report says Trump cited India and China's high growth rates to compare them with America's economy, which he said is "dying", as he slammed Hillary's plans to boost the economy and called her tax plan a disaster.

"So I just met some high representatives of India. They are growing at eight per cent. China is growing at seven per cent, and that for them in the catastrophically low number. We are growing our last report came out, it's right over from the one per cent level. And I think it's going down," Trump said in response to a question on the economy asked by moderator Chris Wallace of the Fox News.

He said America's job reports is "anemic" and "terrible" and the country is losing its businesses. "Last week, as you know, the end of last week, they came out with an anemic jobs report. A terrible jobs report," he said.

"We are not making things any more, relatively speaking. Our product is pouring in from China, pouring in from Vietnam, pouring in from all over the world," he said.