Donald Trump is many things to many people, which appears to be just the way he likes it. He’s variously a poster boy for entrepreneurial excellence, the leering arch-villain of capitalist greed, a prodigiously popular US presidential candidate and a protean fabulist who cannot be trusted.

Before he entered the Republican contest in the summer of 2015, Trump had a low profile on issues of current affairs. He was best known to the American public for his boorish persona on The Apprentice TV show, not for his views on illegal migrants. In the business world, he was viewed as an egomaniac Del Boy, not someone you’d turn to for informed perspectives on free trade.

Now, millions of Americans view Trump as a political hero. His hard-line on immigration and China has resonated with the working class and lower middle class who can’t find decent jobs. Like most Republican politicians, Trump wants to cut income taxes, but unlike his rivals he wants parts of corporate America to pay more. He opposes compulsory health insurance but wants health providers and medics cut down to size and more competition for America’s pharma giants.

The Queens-born kingpin (69) is undoubtedly a multibillionaire, at least in terms of net worth if not the folding stuff. Observers peg the worth of his business empire at between €2.5bn and €4bn.

The Trump pitch that has resonated in middle America is that he’s the tycoon on the side of the little guy. Trump is no egalitarian, but he does favour changing the rules that favour America’s rich establishment so there is more opportunity for people being left behind.

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