Howard Stern took this formula one big step further, aggressively attacking his competitors on the air. Mentioning your competitor’s name, much less attacking him this way, violated an unwritten rule of radio. Stern didn’t just stretch that rule, he shattered it—launching attacks that were so intense, relentless, and outrageous that his rivals felt compelled to respond. They reacted on their own shows, providing free advertising for Stern. Listeners tuned in to hear Stern for themselves, and many of them stayed. Stern used this technique to become the top-rated radio personality in almost every major American city, before taking a $500 million contract to move to satellite radio.

Trump has employed this same technique masterfully against his Republican opponents. None of Trump’s victims have figured out what hit them—much less how to hit back.

Most conservative politicians, in direct contrast to conservative talk-show hosts, are deep-dipped in nice. They couldn’t do nasty if they had an instruction manual. Marco Rubio looked ridiculous attacking Trump. Jeb Bush at least had the good sense not to do something for which his mother would spank him. Ted Cruz was consistently awkward, whatever he did.

The knee-jerk reactions of the other Republican candidates to Trump’s attacks added to his advantage in earned media, just like Stern’s opponents did 25 years earlier. Trump’s political foes foolishly complained about Trump in their own television interviews when they should have been making compelling cases for their own campaigns. Trump was news when he was on TV, and Trump was news when the other candidates were on TV.

But what’s winning Trump the primaries could end up costing him the general election. He’s earning support the same way that Howard Stern did—but Stern’s audience is 73 percent men, and just 27 percent women. Similarly, a Gallup poll found that 70 percent of women have an unfavorable view of Trump. That’s a big problem for him. According to The Washington Post, 4 percent more women than men voted in 2012. In the general election even women who agree with the substance of Trump’s message might hate his style.

However, he may have an even greater problem than a gender gap—he faces a gap between broadcasting and politics. In broadcasting, a plurality is sufficient to achieve enormous success. If you earn significantly higher broadcast ratings than multiple competitors, advertisers will shower you with revenue. If a top show draws as much as 41 percent of the audience, it gets a huge premium in ad revenue, because advertisers can reach a large portion of their target audience in one show instead of many. This plurality has worked so far for Trump in the Republican primaries, where he faced 16 competitors, and won 41 percent of the vote.

In the general election, however, he’ll have to win a majority of electoral votes. That number is 270. Trump attracts many new voters to the GOP but his negatives with women are historically bad. Will the married suburban women who usually vote Republican hold their noses and vote for Trump?