For me personally, I don’t think Trump is the real issue, he is a mere symptom. The cause lies in American society (not all of it or course). And when I say American society, I don’t necessarily mean exclusively Trump supporters.

The shallow polemics about freedom of this and that (used as a signalling device to show how “good” and “independent” one is), broad acceptance of corruption, criminality, oligarchy (especially when marketed in context of freedom and independence etc.), lack of desire to be informed about things outside of the hustle/money and pop culture.

But the real issue that makes the above points so toxic in context of the US (you can of course find these issues anywhere) is that most Americans are simply too well off (on a relative basis) and risk averse to support true reform and powerful anti-crime policies.

And as the US is a defacto two party system, it makes it impossible for any meaningful political movement that opposes criminality and corruption to take hold.

That’s the impression I got from living there for several and visiting somewhat regularly at one point.