I think his appeal has a lot to do with how much those elites despise him. I think the desire for someone Trump-like predates Trump by quite a lot. I see Obama

I think his appeal has a lot to do with how much those elites despise him. I think the desire for someone Trump-like predates Trump by quite a lot. I see Obama as the embodiment of that smugness and Trump as a reaction. As an example, "You didn't build that", while I get his point, it was poorly made and disregarded a lot of very hard work by the people he was talking down to. That's why his supporters don't seem to care about his policies,flaws or ideology. They like him because those people hate him. That may look like cultish behavior because they change opinions based on his whims but I bet if he started acting like and was accepted by those "elites", his support would dwindle. I think a lot of people look at the situation and don't understand it then just decide that his supporters must be stupid.