[paul cotter (OP)]

Trump sells himself as the saviour of the common man and someone to curtail the power and influence of the "wicked elite class". Yet he thinks Elon Musk is the greatest thing since sliced bread. You can't get more elite than Musk, if you buy into this paradigm. What is the story with this apparent contradiction?

[Petrochemicals]

It is the mind control Paul, in a similar way to Soviet Russia (or current Russia for that matter), create the ruse and enemy and then gain the acceptance for the chosen members, you must have read Animal Farm?

[Halc]

curtail the power and influence of the "wicked elite class"

I don't think he sold this message. It was more the 'you are the elite class, and the immigrants are taking your money'.

People are super easy to herd around like sheep, at least a large portion of them are. Trump is excellent at exploiting that, creating false things to fear so the sheep run away from the phantom threat. He's not the only one to do this, and history is full of those that exploit the public this way.
The liberal party is notoriously bad at leveraging such methods, instead believing that people are intelligent and can discern fact from a fiction that bolsters their feelings.  Heck, I watched the campaign sort of passively and noticed an almost complete lack of facts about either candidate, and what those facts mean to you, the voter. For a party that is supposed to be about truth, they didn't expend very much effort educating the public, none of whom were listening anyway.

[paul cotter (OP)]

Living in Ireland I am not au fait with all the twists and turns of American politics. I did read his "drain the swamp" as an attack on the perceived elites and a lot of the extreme right wing that are vocal Trump supporters follow this hatred of so-called elites like Bill Gates. As regards his recent win I think the answer is quite simple: The cost of living has risen considerably in the last four years and in these circumstances the incumbent administration will always lose, regardless of whether they are to blame for increased hardship.

[alancalverd]

Trump won because the good guys lost. No program, no memorable slogan, no razzmatazz, no failed assassination, no mention of Jesus, no "enemy within"....no chance. 

If you stand in a debate against an incompetent, incontinent, incoherent, bankrupt criminal who owes money to the President of Russia, and don't remind the people of those facts, you are throwing away your best cards before the game starts.

[paul cotter (OP)]

I humbly disagree although I accept your points as valid. Whenever the cost of living rises significantly the incumbent loses and this is the principal reason. If one could have proven that Trump was the devil incarnate it would not have diminished his support one iota as he bought the election with totally unrealistic promises that the electorate bought.