People really forget/undersell that this was the original groundswell of support for Trump - particularly running against the Nth generation political hack that was Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general, and the Nth generation political hack that was John Ellis ‘Jeb’ Bush in the primary.

Trump also touched the racism/xenophobia lightning rod in ways no mainstream Republican had since the civil right era, either with dog whistles, or c/overt wink-and-nod about “those people”.