A simple thought experiment would show that Trump is not on their side. Why? Because Trump could have used the leverage he had to make the best deal with the highest echelons of the Canal and be the one to tule them all while shepherding the patriots into enslavement.

How? So simple - throw Hillary, Obama and a whole lot into Gitmo in 2017. Do a limited hangout of unneeded pedos. Unite the whole country as the saviour from corruption and cleaner of the swamp. Play nice with the media and the media in turn would help solidify this picture.

Then boom - a nuclear attack (say one of the rogue networks of these Gitmo’ed people) - unite the country against this “evil”, full fledged nuclear war. While in the middle of it, pandemic. No one would have questioned anything Trump said at that point and he could hand the whole world in a platter, be the glorified emperor without being hated by half the world, and no one would have suspected anything until the last moment.

Now that would have been a long con worthy of the craftiness you are attributing to him