How will a Trump candidacy effect the outcome of a Republican or Independent win in the primaries 2012?

It won't affect anything at all considering he won't even win the primary. Trump appearing like he is going to run for president is a joke. Actually, any republican that's a candidate to run for 2012 is not looking very good. We might have to put up with Obama for another 4 years.

Probably not very significantly. The way I see it, Donald Trump may have made quite a media splash as of late (and the somewhat unfathomable nature of the current Republican field has created an opening for this), but in the end he is merely a flash in the pan. Ideologically, he is all over the proverbial map - and so far as I can tell, his philosophy, to the extent that he has one, is one of self-promotion far more than idea promotion.

Well, the polls suggests that Trump is a legitimate candidate in the race for the Republican nomination. If he keeps his mouth shut and quit with all of this birther nonsense, he could definitely challenge Romney and Huckabee for the GOP nomination. But then again, his rising poll numbers may be a product of his celebrity. Yes, I believe that Trump could throw a major wrench in the GOP presidential primaries.

He may have some Republican votes and mess them up...Sure win for OBAMA!

I cannot imagine a Democrat voting for someone so out of touch with regular people.

It probably won't since I doubt he seriously runs. He's just making noise to get more publicity for his TV show.