Trump had been in the public eye for decades: the brash New York billionaire who stamped his name on skyscrapers, paraded mistresses through the tabloids, and ultimately scored a hit reality television show. More recently, he had become a mascot for right-wing Republicanism. Having fronted the noxious crusade to expose then-president Barack Obama as illegitimate—Trump bragged about bankrolling an investigation in Hawaii, and speculated that Obama wasn’t just foreign-born, but was a foreign-born Muslim—the future president enjoyed a cult following among a segment of the conservative base. Trump
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