Trump's poll success is merely a measure of how effective the neo-con fear mongering really was.

[Tracy Riddle]

The elites in this country don't fully understand that not only have they been cranking up the Fear Factor to 11, they've been implementing policies that are destroying the old white, blue-collar working class/middle class. These people are not terribly well educated (generally speaking); most of them don't read (except for trash); they get their views of the world from TV and movies; their world is changing in ways they don't understand, and they are vulnerable to any demagogue who comes along to appeal to their fears.

Trump may be clownish and laughable, but so was a certain little corporal with a Charlie Chaplin mustache.