What Explains?

Trying to understand

I've been trying, and failing, to figure out why there's such support (or any!) for a hateful egotist like Trump. Now, I think I've figured it out. When President Obama was first elected, I was shocked to see how much racism there was, hidden in the weeds of America. I've heard that the reason is  'people are fed up with professional politicians,' but I think the reason Trump's so popular is that he's tapped into that racism, and is exploiting it for his own gain.

Calling most Mexicans rapists and murderers--calling some women less-than-attractive (as if that's the sole purpose of women, as table-dressing!), questioning whether President Obama was smart enough to have gone to Harvard (which is a swipe at all blacks,) etc, etc. I've also heard one commentator say 'at first, he really wasn't serious--he saw it as a way to get attention, but then was as surprised as anybody when he saw he could actually win,' and now it feeds his ego, which, as you know, knows no bounds in its vastness.

And now, we've got prominent Republicans criticizing him for some of the outrageous things he's said, but who are still going to vote for him. Someone will have to explain that logic to me, although, if Trump's rise to prominence has proven one thing to me--there IS no explaining it, other than my cynical theory!