Donald Trump never had a chance of becoming President, and he knows it.
He’s never been more than a media slut, happy to exploit every opportunity to promote himself, his reality show, and his projects. In a political vacuum such as the GOP candidates field, the press and the light-talk TV shows turned to him because he’s a name people know, which made it seem like he was among the front-runners in some too-early-to-matter polls. Worse, Trump is a master at deflecting questions and answering only in ways that create more attention for him — even though the things he spouted were so far afield from reality — and he found a willing ally in interviewers who rarely followed up with facts, pinned him down, and pointed out how he was either dead wrong or spreading unsubstantiated rumors.
The biggest reason Trump will never be a viable presidential candidate is because, while he’s been spouting anti-government propaganda, he has gotten rich at the expense of American taxpayers thanks to massive government subsidies and tax breaks. Los Angeles Times reporters Geraldine Baum, Tom Hamburger, and Michael J. Mishak explain it all in a piece that should finally kill off any scuttlebutt about Trump’s candidacy that remains after Seth Meyers eviscerated him at the White House Correspondents Dinner a couple of weeks ago.