Grievances: One of the things Trump understood from the moment he ran for president in 2016 was that the Republican Party’s base was roiling with resentments and grievances. Its members felt patronized, disrespected, dishonored, and persecuted by the elite culture. They were sick of it, they were enraged by it, and they weren’t going to take it anymore.

One Trump supporter who is intimately involved in politics, and who requested anonymity so he could speak candidly, put it to me this way last week: “The left plays dirty. They’re smashmouth all the time. They insult and degrade and attack, and they’ve done that for years. I think it’s inevitable that this new wave of GOPers”—Trump and the countless Republicans who emulate him—“has emerged that wants to go toe-to-toe with them. And frankly, most people I talk to say it’s about time.”

Trump has spent half a dozen years not only validating those feelings but amplifying them. Time and again he signaled to his supporters that they were being viciously and unjustly attacked, that the game was rigged against them. He would be their merciless defender, their avenging angel. This created a powerful visceral attachment to the former president.

This time around, Trump has added something new to the narrative, representing himself as persecuted for the sake of his people.