Donald Trump was handed a gift by the FBI director but it may be too late to put him back in the race. Credit:AP Over those decades, Trump had made himself one of the most famous men in the world. He is not famous because he's rich. According to the Forbes Rich List, he's the 324th richest person in the world, and 113th richest in the US. If he was elected president, he would only be the 7th richest world leader. And that's all assuming he is as rich as he says he is. He is famous because he's a novelty. With his unusual hair, his interesting love life, his propensity for putting his name on things, his love of seeing himself on television and his catch phrase "you're fired". He's a master of controversy. He's a caricature of a rich New York businessman, and putting his face on TV gets you ratings. But whether he knew it or not, at the moment he boarded that escalator of fate he already faced several barriers, not least that his celebrity sparkle was going to have to last for 511 days.

The extreme length of the election campaign has been an advantage for Hillary Clinton. Credit:AP At the beginning of his campaign he had a clever way of dog-whistling to the right groups with deliberately inflammatory and outrageous statements, then before everyone quite processed what he was saying, distract by insulting another group. He muscled every one of his Republican primary opponents out of the race by doing something provocative every time he was dropping out of the headlines. Whether through accident or genius, he always knew exactly how to keep the Trump beat going. He always had the momentum. He won even when the press coverage was negative.In late 2015, Trump was the shiny new thing. He was a celebrity candidate. He was drawing bigger crowds than anyone else. He was vanquishing all opponents. Had the election been held then, he may have won. In May and June, the news was all about how Trump had soundly crushed Lil' Marco Rubio and Lyin' Ted Cruz and he was riding into the convention the clear winner.

Had the election been held then, he may have won. In July the convention brought Trump within striking distance of Hillary Clinton in the polls. The Republican Party was reluctantly behind him, his campaign of fear was at its zenith. Clinton was embroiled in the DNC email scandal and the party was still sore from the rough kick in the head Bernie Sanders had given the establishment. Had the election been held then, he may have won.But since his speech at the climax of the RNC's week-long celebration of all things Trump, the house of cards has been tumbling down. In the debates, Clinton delicately baited him into such a rage, he couldn't help but fall into her traps. And now, Donald Trump's greatest fear is coming true – the people aren't listening to him anymore. They're bored. Scandal after scandal has slowly worn away his power and now he's left howling from podiums about rigged elections, lying media and false polls. He has fallen so far behind that even the bombshell dropped by the FBI at the weekend may not be enough to pull him back into the race. Such is Clinton's lead that early voting may already have put her so far ahead in key states that Trump cannot catch up.Trump was always at a disadvantage.

His particular world view has found more support in the year of Brexit than it would have before the rise of Islamic State, but his isolationist ideology would have found even more support in decades long gone, when the United States' white population was more dominant and minorities less vocal. His campaign of attacking minority groups meant the potential pool of voters became shallower by the week. But Trump's biggest disadvantage has been the length of the campaign: 511 days is an eternity in politics. On Election Day 2010, Julia Gillard had been the Labor leader for 53 days. In 2013, Kevin Rudd had been leader for 83 days when he faced the ballot. In 500 days, Donald Trump's celebrity star has lost its sparkle, and not just because it was attacked with a sledgehammer last week. His supporters are losing their enthusiasm, his opponents are increasingly sure he will be defeated, and the rest of the world just wishes it was all over. It will be soon. Matt Bevan is a journalist for RN Breakfast.