I've never understood Trumps re-election strategy.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I don't think there's any substance to him beyond...

...what he watches on TV.

His biographers described him as very mentally lazy, never reading books, and that he constantly watched TV instead. He struggled to pay attention to anything more in-depth.

He watched Fox News all the time and parroted whatever they espoused, and that was the appeal to his base. He "told it like it is" because that's the same sewage they regularly soaked in. And he surely seemed to legitimately believe in that stuff because he did, after Fox News filled up his mostly vacant brain with their ideas.

It wasn't some genius plan by Trump. He got brainwashed by Fox News too, but he was also immensely helped when running for President by his "celebrity" and name recognition. That's something that Fox-cultist Bubba from some little town in Alabama couldn't match. Bubba also won't be regularly interviewed by Fox News, which might otherwise cause a feedback loop that encourages more of his cult following by stoking his narcissism.

Since Fox News hasn't been stoking his narcissism as well as others lately, Trump is surely getting more of his brainwashing from OANN now.

Edit:
Trump used to have more liberal positions long ago, but I think that coincided when the mainstream media gave him more attention... until his business failures and general idiocy became obvious to more serious reporters. His wealth and influence had them fooled for awhile too, back when commercials like this were shown: