Donald Trump's small staff of factotums, advisors and family began, on Jan. 20, 2017, an experience that none of them, by any right or logic, thought they would — or, in many cases, should — have, being part of a Trump presidency. Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all — 100 percent — came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.

The plan backfired.
Trump never wanted to be president.

It looked like Donald Trump 'had seen a ghost,' according to the excerpt published by New York Magazine. 

According to Wolff the idea was that Trump would win by losing. 

'Once he lost, Trump would be both insanely famous and a martyr to Crooked Hillary,' the author wrote. 

And it wouldn't work out well just for Trump. His daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner would be 'international celebrities' after the campaign, while his campaign's Chief Executive Steve Bannon would become 'the de facto head of the tea-party movement.' 

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, would go on to be a 'cable-news star,' Wolff wrote. 

DollyLongstaff wrote:

Donald Trump's small staff of factotums, advisors and family began, on Jan. 20, 2017, an experience that none of them, by any right or logic, thought they would — or, in many cases, should — have, being part of a Trump presidency. Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all — 100 percent — came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.

No big surprise here!