Trump at his prime was fairly astute at self promotion. In his rise in the 1980's, he was interviewable, glib, well-groomed and charming and appeared as a mid-town oligarch who could be presented to counter-balance the bohemians in the East Village and still appear hip and trendy.
He parlayed this into a media career and a carefully constructed image as a "master deal-maker". And this in turn led to a number of successful self promotion ideas, which were actually pump-and-dump scams, like Trump University, Trump Vodka, etc.
And that is basically the model for his career and translated into politics.
He is now 30 or 40 years beyond his intellectual prime and is clearly in deep mental decline and living on his reputation. Never a deep thinker or real "do-er" - aside from his PR talents - he's now mentally incapable and lethargic and complacent.
