Ever since FDR gave his fireside chats on radio, successful Presidents have mastered the dominant new media of their time. Donald Trump masters today’s media by providing what the media wants above all: constant controversy.

JFK won on TV in 1960 and kept winning with live televised news conferences. Roger Ailes orchestrated Nixon’s win in 1968 with “man in the arena” TV events. Lee Atwater put Bush 41 in the White House with negative ads. Reagan mastered stagecraft in campaigns and in office. Clinton went on Arsenio and charmed baby-boomers. Obama’s team won the digital media war (twice), and Obama fits smoothly into the cool TV style of Jon Stewart.

Trump’s brash boastfulness is perfectly suited to today’s high-decibel, hyper-polarized TV. Which was pioneered by Fox News and, again, Roger Ailes.

Almost every day, Trump feeds the beast with outlandish, outrageous, offensive sound bites that would kill another candidate. But he thrives on it. Why? Because he never backs down, never retreats and never recalculates.

If Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton made a Trump-like statement, the media and political elites would erupt in protest. Their campaign teams would curl into a fetal ball and spend days constructing a painful statement of regret, contrition and elaboration.

Not Trump. He sails on to the next insult. He keeps giving all the elites – in the media world, the political world and around the whole world – a big “F*** you!”

The media feeds on it, his TV time goes up and – of course – his polls go up.

In his zest for controversy, there is a bit of Jesse Helms in Trump. Trump also shares Helms’ talent for “dog whistles,” the not-so-hidden cues that bigots and racists hear clearly.

Put all that together: the outright racists, the immigrant-haters, the government-haters, the elite-haters, the Obama-haters and all the people who say “this isn’t the America where I grew up.” That’s a heck of a coalition in a Republican primary.

And Trump has perfect pitch.