Opinion: Trump, the Saviour now?

What Theodore Roosevelt could not do Donald Trump did after 104 years.

A Republican, Roosevelt, walked out of the party after top leaders blocked his nomination although he won the primary. He then formed his own party and cut into the vote bank of the Republican party which ultimately led to the defeat of the Republican to the Democrat in the 1912 presidential election.

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It took eight years for Republicans to return to power.

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Much like him, Trump faced stern opposition from his own Republican party. He was urged to step down from the contest by his party men.

But Trump did not budge. His aggressive and negative electoral campaign contributed to Republican's efforts to retain control of the Congress. And his win in presidency by defeating Democratic rival, will now, as House Speaker Paul Ryan said, unify Republicans. 

Both Roosevelt and Trump faced almost same situation in Republican party. But their ways of fighting the situation is different.

In the run up to the 1912 presidential election, Roosevelt won Republican presidential primaries. But Republican party conservatives controlled the national convention and chose to ignore the primary results.

They picked the then president William Taft, who won the presidency in 1908 election, on the first ballot.

Republican leader Roosevelt, who was president for two terms earlier, and his followers met soon after to form a new third party, the National Progressive Party. Roosevelt contested the battle of ballots for presidency.

The battle remained confined to Roosevelt and Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson. Republican candidate and incumbent President Taft faced a humiliating defeat with obtaining only 8 electoral votes. Wilson won by bagging 435 votes while Roosevelt was able to manage 88 electoral votes.

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Republican camps faced civil war like situation. It took eight years to recover the shock and return to power in 1920 election, thanks to disarray situation in the Democratic camp.

Donald Trump, who is an outsider in the Republic camp and has no experience of holding elected office, did not follow the suit of Roosevelt.

While Trump was winning one after another Republican presidential primaries to grab the party's presidential nomination, many of the top party gun moved to prevent him from getting the ticket.

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Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate in 2012 election, even held a press conference in March and launched a blistering attack on Trump.

He pleaded with fellow Republicans to rebuff Donald Trump, labeling him a "phony" and a "fraud."

He also argued that Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton in the general election in November.

Former Republican presidential nominee of 2008 election John McCain echoed Romney's sentiments in a statement.

McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, "I would also echo the many concerns about Mr. Trump's uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues that have been raised by 65 Republican defense and foreign policy leaders."

It has been widely discussed how to influence the Republican convention to prevent Trump from getting the nomination. But the move failed.

Trump faced more revolts later. More than 160 Republican top guns deserted him. Almost of the newspapers including the Republican ones shunned him. All opinion polls predicted his defeat. Many political observers predicted that the Republican cam on the verge of civil war following the rise of Trump.

Yet, Trump remained resilient to his path. And he finally laughed by defeating his rival Hillary Clinton.

He made the Republican smile. The Republican not only won the presidency also retained majority in the Congress.

The win already changed the situation. Mitt Romney and other Republicans who bashed and deserted Trump have now come out in support of him and congratulated him on his victory.

"Our House majority is bigger than expected. We won more seats than many people expected," Ryan, also a Republican leader, said. "Much of that is thanks to Donald Trump." It was, he said, "the most incredible political feat I have seen in my lifetime."

Will Trump emerge as the saviour for the Republican party as the House Speaker said the president-elect will now lead a "unified Republican government?"