Trump's goal

USA Today

Donald Trump portrays himself as the world greatest businessman - ever! And while he's  generally associated with the gaudy buildings on which his name is always prominently emblazoned, he's actually spent much more time over the last decade in entertainment, with the Miss America pageants and his TV show "The Apprentice", than he has in real estate.

And while he has been lauded as a good example of personal branding, arguably it's his reality TV experience that is the most appropriate lens though which to view his presidential run. His campaign is real-time reality TV with Trump as its central (and only) melodramatic character. His appearances and sound-bites, often shocking, are intentionally light on specifics (who needs to be bothered with all that boring and hard to comprehend detail) and intended to stir the emotions. Just like "Real Housewives of Orange County / New York City / New Jersey / Atlanta..." the audience lives vicariously though its central character whose chief appeal is behaving badly.

Whether Trump believes his own hype is questionable; more than likely he is treating this as another brand building exercise. If he is as smart as he claims, he must know that he will never be elected President. But it looks like he'll have some fun running, and in the process, show the world how truly dysfunctional the American political system really is.