About conspiracies and Trump...
I doubt there was a great deal of thought put into how to use Trump, but perhaps they did a little planning.
Trump is absolutely clueless, and a complete idiot at business. Anyone who has dealt with him knows this-- anyone but Trump himself, that is.
Besides make Merv Griffin even richer by overpaying for his casinos, like he overpaid for the Plaza and other things, he has no concept of reality. A few years back GE/NBC was talking about moving to New Jersey. The guy at Hartz Mountain who had some extra space in the Meadowlands (and who could buy Trump with lunch money, btw) put in a bid. Trump also yakked about getting them to his empty space in the rail yards on the Upper West Side. After NBC stayed put in Rockefeller Center, everyone talked about how slick they were to get bids to bet a break on the rent they were paying. Even Stern at Hartz Mountain (yes, they still make bird food, but that's only a tiny part of it now) admitted he was in it just as almost a joke. Maybe he had GE stock, who knows...
Everyone but Trump, who actually thought he had a chance of winning. He spent a small fortune working up a deal that had no hope, especially since the city was giving him a hard time building anything there, much less a new Rock Center. Stern was caught laughing at Trump.
Anyway, with someone that stupid, it shouldn't be hard to whisper into his ear that he rally has a chance this time, giving him a leg up or so to get started, and just watch the fun. Take the heat off of the rest of the crew while they work the usual electoral grunt work.