Why has Donald Trump's candidacy been successful so far? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Ian Bremmer, Political Scientist, President at Eurasia Group, on Quora:
There are plenty of reasons for this (and I'm the first to admit I didn't think he would get the nomination when he announced his candidacy).
Economics: Hollowing out of US middle and working classes. Globalization and US leadership on global issues ... isn't actually working for a large swathe of the American public. They want to go after the establishment, "kick the bums out," and Trump is an ample opportunity to do that.
Identity Politics: Obama is America's first black president, and I personally think that's pretty cool. But there's not much recognition of the point that a lot of older white people feel they can no longer identify with what the United States today looks like. Younger Americans are much more multicultural --particularly Hispanic. They generally support immigration. They're much less religious. They're more likely to support drug legalization, oppose the death penalty, support gay marriage. Obama has empowered all of these views, while not having much time for those "clinging to their guns and their religion," as he put it. Trump is a big screw you to all of those people.
Social Media: Trump is a master. I'd say he's the world's most effective troll with a truly significant following. He had vastly more followers than any other Republican candidate (only Ben Carson was close). And the Twitter folk tell me that despite having roughly as many followers as Hillary, he had 10x the impressions in the past month. That's the way more and more people are getting their news ... and it also is framed by the candidate himself (which the mainstream media then picks up on), rather than having the agenda set by someone else.
Regular Media: Falling apart, needs ratings and, relatedly, ad revenue. Trump delivers. And so we've seen literally billions in free media coverage.
There are other reasons -- ability to be an "everyman" aspirational rich person as opposed to the more effete/cosmopolitanism of Romney; narcissism that allows for relentless "I'm the greatest," which plays better than you might think in politics; extremely effective speech-making through repetition of simple slogans, etc.
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