In fact, by today's standards, to have success one very important ingredient is to have persuasion skills, also known as salesmanship. Many of us, software developers are sadly not good at salesmanship, but at least we can recognize it when we see it. And personally I think Trump has it, even if his style is obnoxious.
That he has skills only because of today's standards, that may be true, but I wouldn't be so sure of causality: are today's standards responsible for Trump's success, or has Trump adapted to today's standards? I guess we'll never know.
My problem with your argument is that it seems you're considering Trump to be unskilled. I think that's a mistake and if I were in Trump's shoes, that's exactly how I'd like for people like us to think, because he's not the kind of man leaning towards dialog, strategies or cooperation, but rather the kind that does battles and in battles you want to be an asshole (people love assholes in battles, because they make a good show and supposedly show "strength"). And also you want to be underestimated.