“When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say China, in a trade deal?” asked the Donald Trump at the Trump Tower as he declared he is running for President. “I beat China all the time,” Trump told his supporters — and those there just to witness the curiosity that is Trump. All the other candidates are beholden to lobbyists, Trump confirmed. And that’s a fact, really, depending on your definition of lobbyists, which many elected politicians simply call advisers now. Trump says he isn’t in league with the lobbyists or anybody else. Why? Because he’s rich. That’s what we need, Trump says, a rich “truly great leader… a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal.”
“I’m really rich,” Trump said, saying that’s what the country’s aim should be — wealth. “You’ve got to make the country rich. It sounds crass — it’s not crass,” Trump said, well-trained in fending off accusations of crassness. Much of Trump’s most recent comeback has been on the back of his Reality TV success, a genre also known to tend toward crass. Trump is many things, but unintelligent is not one of them. The American presidential elections are the biggest reality TV show in the world — and for burnishing a brand (or tarnishing one) there is no greater opportunity.
