The Donald is one of those people who is exceptionally good at what he’s good at.
And that’s it.
At everything else, he’s mediocre, at best.
Donald Trump’s genius is market placement, the ability to know what people want when they want it, even when they don’t know themselves yet that they want it.
Even when they know they’re going to despise themselves for wanting it.
That’s why his businesses have succeeded so spectacularly, or failed so miserably, and not really anything in between. When he hits the mark, he hits it square on the nose.
When he misses... well, then it’s time to leave the wounded behind and take aim at something else.
It’s that ability to target an easy kill, for instance, that makes his reality shows click.
Donald Trump is the carney barker who can draw you into the tent to see the wild man from Borneo, the bearded fat lady, and the three-headed calf, when you only went to the circus to ride the ferris wheel and maybe eat some cotton candy.
Once the door flaps have closed behind you, you’re on your own. Your dollar is in his pocket, and there’s no percentage in spending more time and effort on you.
It’s the people around him – the Bannons and the Spicers and the Conways – who keep you from tugging at the fat lady’s beard even after you have noticed that two of the skulls of three-headed calf skeleton – not the living calf you thought you were promised – don’t match up with the spine.
By the time you get to the wild man, you’re either so exasperated or so enthralled that you simply don’t care anymore that the guy has an actors union card and obviously doesn’t even know where Borneo is.
You may even consider yourself lucky to have been part of the spectacle before the authorities closed the show.
And maybe you’ll be first in line when barker Trump sets up a new tent over at the next circus.
Those are the alternative facts of Trump’s Muslim travel ban... er, I mean, his temporary suspension of entry privileges for people from seven countries that just happen to be predominately Muslim.
Indeed, after a few “so-called judges” shut him down, instead of fixing his act, Trump has vowed to simply set up a new tent.
The show must go on.