Donald Trump is, first and foremost, a con man. So is the great and powerful Oz.

They get away with it because both medicine and politics are fields full of experts who consistently overpromise and underdeliver. Both fields are full of arrogant experts who have a paternalistic attitude toward the people they are supposed to be serving.

The game that Trump and Oz are playing is to gain support by legitimizing the views of the people “left out” by the establishment, no matter how incorrect or dangerous. Doctor Oz would be balancing humours if enough people thought that was right. Trump’s agenda is completely incoherent, but that doesn’t matter because it plays right into the prejudices of his audience.