I'm pretty sure Trump is still a ploy to get Hillary on the White House. Normal non-deranged lunatics with a clue are going to have to vote to Hillary if they want to stop Trump, undermining any possibilities of a third party candidate. This is also plenty of proof of just how degraded and shitty american democracy, particularly the republican voterbase is, when pretty much any celebrity sporting demagogical rhetoric can compete head-to-head with any other career politician. It could have been fucking Kid Rock claiming he's going to build a wall around Mexico, and he'd also would've fared better than Cruz.