Trump’s long, strange relationship with the "elites"

But then he won. And over the past year, as he has settled into the trappings of the presidency, he has begun to do something none of his populist forebears ever attempted. He has been reclaiming the word “elite” with an almost vengeful pride. Having vanquished his opponents at the polls, having slammed the “elites” as corrupt, incompetent and out of touch, Trump now has bestowed upon himself, as well as his most fervent supporters, the mantle of “elite” as if it were a spoil of war. “You know what?” he said last year in Arizona. “I think we’re the elites.” In recent months, this approach has ramped up markedly. “Why are they elite?” he said in Minnesota. “I have a much better apartment than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president, and they didn’t. And I’m representing the greatest, smartest, most loyal, best people on earth—the deplorables.” He and his voters are now the elite, the new elite, “the super-elite,” Trump said in South Carolina. “Just remember that,” he said in West Virginia toward the end of the summer. “You are the elite. They’re not the elite.”

This Trumpian rebranding is more than mere semantic sleight of hand. It is a true novelty in politics, and a window into the source of his power. “The phenomenon of the Trump voter is twofold,” veteran Republican consultant and pollster Frank Luntz told me. “Half of the people felt forgotten. And half of the people felt fucked. I call it F-squared.” The “F-squared” portion of the population was the key to his victory. It continues to contribute to his sway over members of Congress. And it will help determine, one way or another, his fortunes in the next two years and maybe beyond. “Trump,” Luntz explained, “is seeking to elevate those who feel oppressed by and taken advantage of by the elites, and he seems to raise them up and say, ‘Hey, guys, you’re now in charge. … You matter.’” And now Trump is upping the ante. “I don’t remember the last time that someone ran for president championing being the elite,” Luntz concluded. “This is truly groundbreaking.”