I like the context of this piece, but I question whether “troll” is the right word. Generally, trolling is recreational abuse — usually colored by racism, bigotry, misogyny, etc., yes, but recreational in nature. Trolling is bullying and inciting conflict for the pure enjoyment of it.

To believe Trump is a troll, I’d need to believe he’s saying that crap because inciting people gives him joy. I don’t think he’s trolling as much as showing his racist, misogynistic views apologetically.

To me, that’s scarier. Because what he did was stand up in public and yell out his racist, bigoted, misogynistic views and Americans showed the world how many of them share those views. To me that’s far more horrifying than recreational abuse.

When you introduce profit, there’s another word for it. Fraud. Fraud and trolling are not the same.