And then you did seem to defend his positions and statements on the illegal immigration topic.

I'm not aware of other Republican candidates who have nearly identical positions to his, actually. There's a lot of comparisons to Cruz, but while Cruz may also be populistic and also tough on immigration, he's a lot more conventionally conservative on the other issues. In terms of completely outrageous statements, his closest competitors would probably be Huckabee and Carson, but again they're quite different on other points.

In any case, Trump's uniqueness, more than the outrageous quotes, more than the special blend of liberal stances, shameless flip-flopping and Tea Party rhetoric, lies surely in his open and blatant lack of interest in anything other than his own ego, ambition and bank account. I suppose in that regard, at least, he is refreshingly honest, but if people are disgusted by presidential candidates who secretly hold such motives, why would they (I'm not saying you - duly noted you don't support him) vote for one who does so openly?

Seriously? You say "eleven million Mexicans" with a straight face and you ask me what was factually incorrect? Rubio made the point again during the debate: all this trash talking of Mexico and fairy tales about building walls indicates pretty clearly that people aren't exactly up to date on the facts. As per a quick Wikipedia check, 50% of those 11 million aren't Mexicans, and over 20% aren't Latin-American at all. And close to half of the number originally entered the country legally, so a wall would've done exactly nothing to change that.

Then there's your claim that "Mexicans blow native born Americans of all colors out of the water in urban crime, single parent households and drug issues" - was that even supposed to be a factual statement, accurate or not (hint: it's not)? Or really more of a Trump-style "I'm mad and I'm going to rant about it, facts only get in the way" statement?

Populism is politicians promoting simplistic policies to voters which they know perfectly well aren't serious or feasible solutions at all (on which note, I see you ignored Salter's very valid question about the practicalities of deporting 11 million people, much like Trump does). Ugly is, well, slurring millions of people as rapists just because. Honestly, "ugly populism" is a perfectly objective description of Trump's rhetoric. Sanders or Warren are also populist, just not as ugly (and while we're on the topic of the Democrats, I agree with the RNC that Clinton should apologize for her ridiculous and offensive remarks about the Republicans' views on women).