The greatest irony of this entire election season is that Trump ...

[11 Bravo]

never really wanted to be President. He got into this solely to market himself while advancing his brand (and if he could scam the marks for a few bucks at the same time, that would just be the icing on the cake).
Then he got caught up in forces beyond his control; and a coterie of angry, bigoted old white men pushed him to the nomination. At that point, people actually began to listen to the stupid shit he says; and then proceeded to the inevitable (although belated) vetting process. That led to the revelation that his "stupid shit" was not only stupid, but deeply offensive and actually reflective of prior criminal behavior.
Now his "brand" is in the shitter, and his very presence is toxic to any cause which he may choose to espouse.
The net result ... this "amazing businessman" has been reduced to a porky, petulant, pussy-puller who couldn't sell aspirin to a woodpecker.
And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Fuck him!

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. I don't think so

He's been making noise about running for President since 1988, and officially ran in 1999-2000.

He's been sticking his nose into politics seriously since 2008.

I think he wanted to win very badly indeed.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Maybe, but I suspect it's like steaks and vodka...

he got it into his head that there's yet another market he could conquer.

That he was never successful in any of his silly ventures, and the markets conquered him, just didn't get through to him-- he had to get into the game.

[Nitram]

3. I agree, it was a publicity stunt that, like some satiric surreal comedy, actually succeeded beyond

...his wildest dreams. But let no on say he doesn't grab an.....opportunity...... when it presents itself.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

4. I Said The Same Thing

I even told my friend (who's a die-hard Drumpf fan-boy now, by the way) that there was no way he was serious about winning. I told him Drumpf would do a few campaign events, wait until his poll numbers dropped him to about 3rd or 4th place, and then drop out. Well, his poll numbers never dropped.

Howard Stern always said that Drumpf doesn't really want to be President. Every time he has a new book or something he wants to sell coming out, he starts planting stories in the media about running for President, and his sales go through the roof, and then he decides not to run. I was sure that was the case this time as well.

I think he got into this race with the intention of dropping out at the right time, but to his total surprise, found himself winning and then decided that maybe he really DID want to win. But it was just a desire to win for the sake of winning; he never actually wanted the JOB (hence his overtures to Kasich and Pence that they would be the ones actually doing all the heavy lifting). I even speculated that his outrageous statements regarding Mexicans, etc., early on were his way of trying to get people to turn on him so his numbers would drop. The problem was Drumpf underestimated the stupidity of the Republican voter.

[lpbk2713]

5. He's still marketing himself.

Only now that he's come this far it's for a high paying prime time slot on Faux.
Or maybe he can even talk the Kochs into starting up their own cable channel.