The publicity hound: When it comes to seeking celebrity, Donald Trump is the country’s top dog | GUEST COMMENTARY

Donald Trump is the greatest publicity hound of our time — and perhaps  all time. When he was a young he spent his days building skyscrapers in  Manhattan and, according to his biographers, his nights calling gossip  columnists.

His love affairs and marriages cost him a lot of money, but they gave him  something more precious than gold — an unending stream of publicity. He became so well known that he began making more money, putting his name on properties, then building them.

He hit the jackpot every publicity hunter seeks by getting a weekly  national TV show in 2004. And, there he began to develop what would become his presidential  campaign style.

Now, after four years of a tumultuous term in office, followed by three years of a tumultuous term out of office, he is in various courtrooms still seeking — and winning — more publicity. Whether good or bad, the focus on him doesn’t matter. His base doubles down. The money rolls in for his new campaign  and for any other candidate he chooses to anoint.

Why bother being part of a gang in a low-rated political debate, when he  can headline the show in any courtroom that calls him to appear? This ingenious new tactic for returning to high political office forces his  political opponents and the legal system to make very delicate decisions. Most of his Republican primary opponents somehow want to beat him without opposing him too much.

The current president sits in a campaign rose garden ignoring the fray. But the judges who have to try the cases against a former president have  to make daily decisions between two sacred American principles:

A: No man (or woman) is above the law.

B: Every American, and particularly all political campaigners, must have  the right of free speech.

If their defendant insults them or one of their clerks, should they gag him,  and if he won’t shut up, either fine him or even put him in jail ?

The fines would be paid many times over by a flood of new donations from  his passionate followers.

If the judge cannot make Trump behave and sends him to jail to cool off,  then Trump has achieved the best podium of his life. Every  news medium in the world will join the feeding frenzy to cover the best  Trump story ever.

Trump may not be elected president again, but he already has become  the most famous man in America and a household name around the world. He’s already gotten what he most wants.

Allen North Smith (allennorthsmith@gmail.com) is a retired Salisbury University journalism professor.