I don't see Trump as a particularly successful business man. Had he not been born to rank and privilege he wouldn't have got far. Had he not been an abusive bully, with the facility of having people effectively bound in indentured servitude, he'd have gone nowhere. And he's not - for example - an Alan Sugar who actually did come from nothing and built something of substance. And I raise that example not only because he's a 'TV rival' of Trump'; but because he also indulges in 'role play' albeit in a different way.
And I don't think Trump's playing the fool - personally I see him as an infantilised psychopath, which, actually, is something that's been becoming more and more common in 'business' - and by that I mean those that get their nose in the trough at some or other place.
The US economy and stock markets may well be flying high - but who's economy is that anyway? It's like visiting a housing scheme in Glasgow and measuring the success of the area by how busy the Bookies' shops are. It tells you nothing of the underlying wellbeing and progress being made (or not, as the case may be) by the majority or of society.
When you focus on those things you make make the mistake of letting the tail of statistics wag the dog of reality; which is a favourite politicians like to do and like to mislead the electorate with.
- Which, in turn, is why 'politicos', i.e. actual politicians and their equivalent in 'business' don't wash with of the electorate; for they are just the rags caught up in the spin cycle; and they don't like it. - Trump is finding favour at the moment because his rhetoric for now is all about restoring the means by which people made their living - means that were stripped away from them over the course of the past forty or so years. And that's not just an American problem.
And what is a "successful businessman" - or business person - anyway?
Is it the individual who has sucked the life out of society for their own extreme personal gain, leaving a trail of broken people and denuded society and infrastructure? Is it the person who has trapped and enslaved others into a non-progressive cycle of greed and consumption? Or is it the person who has built something from the ground up? The person who stands on their own two feed and puts food on their table and clothes on their kids' backs? Perhaps its the person who, in that endeavour is providing others with the opportunity and means to do likewise?
Maybe it's the guy who come round to wash the windows once a fortnight, and now has his grandson working with him, having brought up three kids of his own, bought his house and lived a reasonable life with no harm done to anyone?