Donald Trump once again provokes outrage, and that is the point.

Yesterday I tuned in to a regular BBC news broadcast from the United States in the aftermath of the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Listening to the report, you would assume that Trump was absolutely on the ropes and the conventions had almost killed what slim chance he ever had of becoming president.

Now I don’t think BBC North America Editor John Sopel or the organisation itself is biased. In fact I’m certain they are reporting what they believe to be facts.

So much of today’s BBC intelligentsia grew up in a late-90s world with a view of things formed inside a London bubble. They’ll never be able to understand how and why Britain voted for Brexit and they’ve got a cat in hell’s chance of ever understanding the Donald Trump phenomenon.

In reality Trump’s week has been far from a disaster. The first reason is obvious to anyone. Donald Trump has succeeded in life by making everything about him, and this week is no exception. When Barack Obama and George W. Bush won, the spotlight was all on them. Now even at her own convention, nobody is paying attention to Hillary Clinton.

“Donald Trump calls for a complete ban on Muslim immigration.” “Donald Trump to build a wall on the Mexican border.” “Donald Trump wants Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.” “Donald Trump insults the parents of a fallen Muslim US soldier.” “Donald Trump says the election will be rigged.”

If you want to take offence at Trump’s statements, where do you begin? Any undecided voters repulsed by Trump will have already made up their mind to vote for Hillary. There’s no smoking gun still to come and deliver the election to Mrs Clinton. And yet he’s hanging in there.

In the 2012 election, with all the media attention on him, Barack Obama only won 51% of the vote and 26 states. Personally I would be astonished if Donald Trump didn’t receive more votes than Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney did.

But let me delve into a deeper analysis of this week and, by extension, of the whole Trump campaign. Some of what I write may be upsetting, or depressing, to some people, but it is the only way to explain why everything the BBC types call a ‘gaffe’ or ‘setback’ is actually a calculated move by Trump.

Let’s focus on the Khans in particular, the parents of a Muslim US Army Captain who was killed in Iraq, who spoke out against Trump at the Democratic Convention.

There is nothing politicians on the Right fear more than a victim. Ever since the 90s, any controversial ideas could be negated by shoving a victim in the face of the politicians who came up with them, forcing said politician to climb down, or at least express deep sympathy, and thereby neutering them and their idea.

The cult of the victim has never been as strong in America as in Europe, but a victim from the US armed forces? You would have to be mad to insult his parents, right?

Well not quite. Donald Trump has been pretty successful by avoiding backtracking on the vast majority of his controversial statements. If the Democrats thought they could make him start by wheeling out the parents of a token Muslim hero in the armed forces they had another thing coming.

What the Clinton campaign don’t understand is that to many Americans the country is not some magical place where anyone can be American just by happening to live on the territory of the United States. To Trump supporters and many in swing states, the Khans don’t look and sound like Americans, they look and sound like Afghans.

(I know their origins are Pakistani, I say the Khans look like Afghans to many in America because that country is more prominent in the minds of most Americans).

So Trump’s response, ignore Captain Humayan Khan completely, for a Purple Heart recipient would likely be perceived as American by even many Trump supporters. Instead focus on the parents. Focus on their ‘Muslim’ qualities. Focus on an Islamic woman supposedly having nothing to say. The inevitable outrage comes from Hillary supporters and suddenly they’re using their own convention to promote Donald Trump.

Then for Trump supporters and much of Middle America, the Republican candidate insulting the Khans was the ultimate act of defiance against political correctness, and therefore the ultimate act of liberation. If Trump isn’t frightened to say what he thinks (even if he doesn’t actually think it) about parents of a fallen Muslim soldier, that Holy Grail of victims, then Americans can certainly be more politically incorrect and open about their views in their own daily lives.

Maybe they can stand up to safe-spaces at US colleges, set up to stifle free speech on behalf of victims that don’t actually exist. Maybe they can stand up to the thuggery committed in the name of the victim by some supporters of Black Lives Matter.

They love that Donald Trump has the ‘courage’ to suggest the policies he does and in many ways they love him even more for the fact that he would never actually implement them.

It certainly won’t be what many in the UK want to hear, but the momentum in this election is with Donald Trump. The last time all seemed lost for the Democrats in the US, as Labour in the UK, Bill Clinton learned to think like Reagan and Tony Blair learned to think like Thatcher. If the Hillary campaign can’t learn to think like The Donald and his supporters then we may well wake up on 9th November to President Trump.