If you'd like to understand, there are two things here. The first is the primary system. Most people inclined to see Trump as extra-bad were prohibited from vo

If you'd like to understand, there are two things here. The first is the primary system. Most people inclined to see Trump as extra-bad were prohibited from voting in the Republican primaries, as they were voting in the Democratic primaries (or even worse, because they weren't registered Republicans in states without "open primaries"). The second is that everyone was basically bored and upset with mainstream status-quo politicians. The Republican party specifically had been growing and grooming the monster that would become Trumpism for decades on reactionary talk radio. They'd get people all riled up about immigration, globalism, racial tension, sellout politicians, etc. But then they'd cool them down enough to show up and vote for more status quo Republicans on a vague remnant feeling of Republicans being "better". If you want some discrete datapoints to see the progression of this monster manifesting in popular politics: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul [0], the Tea Party. Trump, the New York con artist Democrat, basically just channeled and took personal ownership of all of that reactionary tripe - "saying the quiet part out loud". So how could Rubio defend against that? Rubio was likely often a target of that reactionary talk radio for failing to take some hardline stance, in favor of the pragmatic American status quo. And so here we are, an entire tribe of the country with no idea how the country actually functioned or what made us a world leader, frustrated and now overrunning the place as an angry mob hell bent on destroying anything they don't understand, which is everything. [0] I myself was a Ron Paul supporter, but I have to be honest and admit that the energy behind him - rather than staying true to "right-Libertarianism" fundamentalism - transformed into the simplistic populist answers of the Tea Party.