Is he a Democrat? Republican? Independent? Silly Party? You may not be clear on his positions, but you certainly know where he is. He's the one making the most noise. Over the course of his life he's perfected one negotiating technique: attention.
The phenomenon of Trump's popularity mirrors the emptiness of his policy details. But so what? He's got attitude, and enough self love to embrace 1000 of himself, as long as no one else is in the group hug. He has a bully tweet-pit where he fires off his distaste to his naysayers as the losers and embraces the winners who support him to the delight of his growing base.
Where most people would cringe from even thinking what he says, he says things before he's thought them through. People love what they are calling his 'honesty' and 'unpolished presentation'. Why not? Hateful, judgmental half thought through bigotry is so much easier to understand than clever euphemisms and shadow language. When Scott Walker talks about 'urban crime' he means black crime. When the GOP talks about 'Fiscal restraint' they mean cutting Social Security. When Trump tweets "Sad that overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major cities is committed by blacks and Hispanics," you pretty much get what he means. That this idiotic blaming technique is actually strengthening Trump's identity as the outsider who doesn't care is irritating his own party more than anyone else. That he can double down on any mistake and defend it as a win, and increase his popularity among his supporters is making them pull out their hair.
Similar gaffs with one tenth the magnitude have brought down and halted campaigns of better positioned GOP candidates in the past like Perry and more recently Christie.
But Trump leading with his incompetence is starting to hit a wall. His actual policy position on immigration, to end birth right citizenship and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants is getting a huge blowback even he will have trouble making a win.
Sure it's fun to name call and blame, and then half backtrack with half baked clarifications. He's done it for years to intimidate in boardrooms, gilded bathrooms and conference rooms. Brutish tough talk, like at a fighter's weigh in, works best in hostile takeovers and employee salary negotiations where intimidation is a strategy. It doesn't play so well at White House state dinners or congressional addresses.
There's an old saying, if you have money people think you're smart, if you don't people think you're stupid. The implication of course is that rich people don't have to be smart to have a seat at the decision maker's table to protect their interests. Writing checks buys a lot of inclusive power. Just saying.
To be fair, success in business is no small achievement and the skill set is very refined. Success in any area of expertise deserves respect because real results have an impact. But success in one area doesn't by definition transfer to another. You wouldn't want the CEO of Monsanto to take out your appendix, for example. Two very different skill sets. Likewise, governing the country is not running a business. They are two very different skill sets.
Where profits rule, everything unessential must be cut away to the honor bottom line, regardless of who's hurt (assuming no regulations are in place to protect employees, part of the GOP's roll back plan on unions). A Democratic government, however, needs to address large systems created to serve the concerns of many constituents, all with varying interests, voted through the legislature by their representatives. It's not a perfect system by any means but it's designed to serve the many not the few.
But the party of the Narcissist doesn't know how to serve the many. The "I am great" party's leader, is literally chanting just that. Not 'we are great', unfortunately, as it's literally a first person party , just "I am great." There's no 'greater good', only their own good. There's no air left in the room for anyone else.
The upside for the party of Trump is staffing the top jobs in his administration will be easy. He's the party of me, myself and I, and could obviously hold positions of Vice President and Chief of Staff as well. He certainly believes he knows better than anyone else.
Where it all falls apart, and why Trump will shortly be leaving the stage, is that the narcissist's dream has only one player of interest. They're invested as long as it's all about them, as long as they're winning and as long as it's fun. When things get difficult, everyone starts pointing out their flaws and don't follow their playbook, they stop caring. Trump is running with the ball because it's fun. When it stops being fun, he'll drop the ball and walk away and take his toys with him. We'll hear from him again when he figures out a new game to play in a new sandbox he's built, that he acquired in a hostile real estate take over.