Excellent post and I'm glad to see somebody looking at what Trump really was before and has been all his life. I've never understood why the GOP completely ignored his past. Most of what he has done has been borderline or fully fraudulent and all has been, shall we say, real bottom feeding. His choice of associates - including his porn-star wives - is appalling, and we would have really jumped on a Dem candidate for association with any of these people - but nobody in the GOP seemed to care when it came to Trump. Without his inherited money and the inherited real estate (run by someone else - he has no involvement) he'd probably be in jail by now.
Without the media he would not be our nominee. They built him up to be bigger than life, and the low-information voter went right along. When Cruz beat him in Iowa, he managed with the help of carson , to blunt Cruz's victory, along with the media who hated Cruz and looked the other way.That SC gov nikki endorsed Rubio and split the conservatives. From then on it was down hill for Trump. Voters felt he was the only one who could beat Hillary Some well respected conservatives endorsed Trump, which made many think he must be ok. DAMN