...one source of skepticism has remained difficult to dismiss, even after the mogul clinched his party's bid: Why would Donald Trump want to be president?
After all, Trump really seems to enjoy being an eccentric pseudo-billionaire who spends his days cutting ribbons and watching cable news. And he has been utterly unwilling to perform the workaday duties of a presidential candidate, let alone those of an actual president. He refuses to make fundraising calls, or assemble a campaign staff large enough to achieve basic competence, or even to spend more than a dozen nights of the campaign away from one of his homes...This is a man who has shown no real interest in civics or governance at any point in his adult life — while showing immense interest in publicity stunts.
...And yet, this is also a man who transparently hates losing. Especially in a public fashion. Thus, one might reason that the ideal outcome for Trump would be to somehow win the election but not actually have to serve as president.
According to Robert Draper of The New York Times Magazine, that is, in fact, how the mogul's campaign described his endgame to John Kasich, when trying to convince the Ohio governor to become Trump's running mate:
One day this past May, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before. As a candidate, Kasich declared in March that Trump was “really not prepared to be president of the United States,” and the following month he took the highly unusual step of coordinating with his rival Senator Ted Cruz in an effort to deny Trump the nomination. But according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?
When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.
Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?
“Making America great again” was the casual reply.
As with so many of his ventures, Trump would like to brand his administration — but not actually run it.