The only positive I took from Donald Trump’s shock victory in the 2016 US presidential election was that I was able to collect on a wager I had made, at very long odds, that it would happen.

The rest of the country was stunned into uncharacteristic silence. You could hear a pin drop the next morning on the usually cacophonous streets of the very liberal Brooklyn neighbourhood we lived in.

What had given me such confidence in this outcome? The wall-to-wall media coverage of the “novelty” candidate and his attention-grabbing campaign — even when it was to deride or dismiss him.

All told, over the course of the 2016 election it was estimated Trump received almost $US9 billion ($A12.7 billion) worth of free media (how much this airtime would have cost him if he paid for it). By comparison, Trump spent $595 million on his entire campaign, all advertising included.

With its relentless obsession with Trump’s scandals, stunts, and notoriety, the US media rocketed him into the White House; America’s first reality-­TV president fit for the outrage era as cable news thundered “why is he so popular?!” into its 417th straight hour of blanket coverage of his campaign. It pays to be controversial.

Hanson’s attention-grabbing burqa stunt in the Senate. Photo: Mike Bowers

That’s why our own local upstart political punchline wears a burqa into the Senate, or........

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