Whats interesting is how Trump seemed to go out of his way after the debate to ensure that hed remain the center of attention, with his tirade against Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (a feud that hes since resurrected). That tended to drown out most of the coverage of whether, say, Fiorina or Kasich had gained momentum after the debate, perhaps preventing them from having the sort of feedback loop of favorable attention that can sometimes trigger surges in the polls.
I dont know whether this was a deliberate strategy on Trumps behalf. But if so, its pretty brilliant. Trump is perhaps the worlds greatest troll, someone who is amazingly skilled at disrupting the conversation by any means necessary, including by drawing negative, tsk-tsking attention to himself. In the current, free-for-all phase of the campaign when there are 17 candidates and you need only 20 percent or so of the vote to have the plurality in GOP polls this may be a smart approach. If your goal is to stay at the center of attention rather than necessarily to win the nomination, its worth making one friend for every three enemies, provided that those friends tell some pollster that theyd hypothetically vote for you.
Is it sustainable? In the long run, probably not. There are lots of interesting candidates in the GOP field, whether youre concerned with the horse race, their policy positions or simply just entertainment value. Sooner or later, the media will find another candidates story interesting. Cruz has a lot of upside potential in the troll department, for instance, along with better favorability ratings than Trump and a slightly more plausible chance of being the Republican nominee