One of the features of the human brain is its persistent attempts to find a "reason" for events. We are pattern-seeking animals. This is why people see shapes in clouds, why people have superstitious rituals, and of course why religions exist. Trump is an infantile compulsively lying moron. It really is as simple as that. He appeals to his supporters because he feeds them simple-minded lies that their tiny brains can grasp; reality is forever beyond their reach and so they adore him for feeding them something that they can almost sort-of comprehend. Sure, many know he's lying to them but that doesn't matter. What matters is the tiny dopamine jolts they get when they sort-of grasp his lies. Just like so many adults are obese because, sure, they know gallons of ice-cream and countless McSlop double-bypass burgers are toxic but they love to consume them all the same. So there's no clever strategy. Trump is a moron and the hard fact is that in a qualification-free representative democracy at a time when everyone is encouraged to be as infantile as possible in every aspect of life, Trump is the inevitable output. He wins precisely because he has zero idea what he's doing, and the great mass of dull-eyed drooling morons adore him for it because he's just like them, only in Technicolor.