The Donald is a persona, a public image created by Donald J. Trump (b. 1946), no later than the mid 1970s, and used by him from that era forward as a means of capturing and holding public fascination via the broadcast media.
The Donald was a television character that Trump invented for himself to play within the medium of broadcast news. The invention of a public image to play for oneself on the actual news was a new invention. An analogy with the movie world would be the public media character invented by Archibald Leach, who in the media played a movie star named "Cary Grant", as well as the characters that Grant played within movies. Marilyn Monroe is a similar female example.
Features of the Donald from its earliest incarnation include extreme confidence, hubris, ego, machismo, braggadocio, coupled with ruthlessness in business, flamboyance in personal style, and open hedonism in the pursuit of pleasures afforded by wealth, especially the lustful companionship of many beautiful women.
Trump used this personal successfully starting in the 1970s to keep public fascination with him and his lifestyle in nearly continuous fashion from its invention. He always appeared as the Donald in public without exception, which allowed the public little insight into his true character.
The Donald has evolved somewhat over the years, as Trump has used it. After his marriage to Melania Knauss in 2005, Trump has used it less frequently to highlight the hedonistic and flamboyant aspects of the Donald character. He successfully used the Donald character in his 2016 run for President, all the while phasing it out largely to replaced by the President Trump character, which is his current persona. The President Trump character is largely bifurcated between supporters and opponents, who see the President Trump character in completely different ways.
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