@Smokin Joe
Yes, he made it all happen, from the time he started his first campaign. He has made sure he is on TV every day and that is his goal - keep causing turmoil every day so newspapers and general websites and news sites write/speak about him - again, every day. He has no other goal than this. Malignant Narcissist.
He has done this all his adult life. Would use fake names and call newspapers telling them what "Trump" had done that day, so he would get in the papers every day. Then got his TV program for more publicity.
He will find something else to keep him in the news every day when he is no longer president.
He's a promoter, not the producer.
Promotions (sales) is his real stock in trade and his name is a brand, so he's used to promoting it, and in the process, promoting himself. He is his own mascot, no 'Tony the Tiger', no Speedy the Alka Seltzer kid.
Keeping that name in the media is much like keeping Ford, Band-Aid, Honey Bunches of Oats, whatever forward in the public mind because it sells the brand.
No one has forced anyone to listen to, buy into, or vote for the brand, nor the man. People have undertaken those decisions on their own. It's like blaming the dealer for someone getting addicted, when the addict made the choices that led to their addiction.
Someone else decided he'd sell more soap than whatever else was going on and played right in.
You act as if he twisted arms, but the decisions to put him on TV came from those who wanted
their stuff to be viewed. Still happens that way, just that now that they realize he
could beat Hillary, they're attacking him.
