You actually have to wonder if Trump is a genius?
2008- Edwards was outed by National Enquirer for having a mistress, placing Obama and Clinton as far and away favorites to win.
2010- Trump starts Obama birther garbage as way to solidify the racist backing
2011- Trump switches stance to 'Pro-life' solidifying evangelical trust
2012- Trump backed out of presidential race, not enough hate built up is my guess.
2013- Trump Mrs. Universe pageant in Moscow around the time Snowden entered Russian protection
2014- Russians deploy agents across the USA to exploit our social weaknesses for exploitation online
2014- Trump moves from being positive about the Clintons to an Anti-Hilary stance.
2015- Has National Enquirer run interference for him printing negative articles about people running against Trump
2016- Trump becomes our president.
So either he had no clue and stumbled into everything and won the highest office in the land, or he put together a long term plan that ended up with him in the Oval Office. Could be somewhere in between, I tend to think he started courting the racists and evangelicals to get a strong backing in the republican base to get his name on a lot of signs and the Russians/Saudis/Cambridge Analytica won it for him with a combination of voter suppression and online trolling campaign designed to break down social discord.