And by complete coincidence, they now have a lot more to get people riled up about (and more clicks to sell) for the next four years.

That goes along with my thought that sometimes the NRA would rather have a Democrat in office for much the same reasons.

They covered the election 24/7, not just Trump, and why not?

It probably applies more to the Republican primaries, where Trump seemed to get as much publicity as the other candidates put together (and much more in international media)

Negative publicity from news sources the typical registered Republican had a fairly low opinion of almost certainly helped him greatly in what was arguably the more difficult contest for him to win.

This is pretty much the DNC playbook from the election, elevate a fringe candidate and marginalize the moderates during the primaries, to make it easier to tear down the candidate during the election. Problem is Dr. Frankenstein wasn't able to control her monster

Operation Pied Piper, The DNCs 2016 Strategy From Wikileaks part of Podesta release

1) Force all Republican candidates to lock themselves into extreme conservative positions that will hurt them in a general election;

2) Undermine any credibility/trust Republican presidential candidates have to make inroads to our coalition or independents;

3) Muddy the waters on any potential attack lodged against HRC.

Pied Piper Candidates

Ted Cruz

Donald Trump

Ben Carson

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1120.

see the attachment with email for the Strategy.

Negative publicity can swing both ways though, it could just as well sink him.

Maybe Ron Paul should have gone for that kind of infamy :-D