To try to explain the Donald Trump phenomenon would take volumes, but it can be reduced to the simple theme of a man disliked by so many yet triumphing against all such odds in the end.

It began with Hillary Clinton in 2016 whom he annihilated, lost to Joe Biden in 2020 in circumstances related to election integrity still to be resolved, and now decimates Kamala Harris to produce a cry of lamentation among her supporters unheard of.

Ostensibly it was a Republican/Democrat political duel, but is now manifesting itself more than ever as an Establishment/Grassroots dichotomy-the latter seemingly blind and subservient for the former in the past, but whose eyes are now opened and can now see.

And who opened their eyes? Trump did, making them see how little they have in common with the The Establishment, which professes to be their salvation but uses them as fodder to foster their own interests. Is it any wonder they hated him so much?

But the question to ask is who or what is this Establishment? In the first instance, there are big conglomerates which, through their own manipulation and exploitation, and in concert with the powers that be, in this case the Biden/Harris administration, have made living for the Grassroots an insurmountable challenge with skyrocketing inflation producing prices too high even for the basics of everyday living.

So much so that Trump’s usual question at the beginning of his rallies, ‘Are you better off today than you were four years ago (when he was in office)?’ always produced a resounding ‘No’-the telling effect of which is no doubt reflected in his victory in the election.

And then there are the ‘warmongers’ like Hillary Clinton who specialised in regime change, as with Libya, and others like the Cheneys, all patrons of the industrial complex in Washington which profits from wars that provide a ready market for their weapons of mass destruction.

And the Beyonces and the Oprahs, the Cardi Bs and the Springsteens, on the same wavelength, posturing as one with the people when their lives are as incongruous as night and day. And then the De Niros whose mania against Trump is almost inhuman, and the Obamas and the Clintons as surrogates to power in the Biden/Harris administration seeing Trump as a threat, with Soros in the background weaponising the judicial system to ensure Trump was not on the ballot.

There is an irony here in that, how could people of such stature indulge in the posture of caring for the small man? Is it because they are of the view that the grassroots, in their simple-mindedness, cannot see the deception and would be blinded by the glitter?

But Trump, in his own inimitable style, has opened their eyes to make them see that all that glitters is not gold.

With the simple message of looking after their real concerns, solving the inflation problem, controlling the border, exploiting the energy resources that lie beneath, promising no wars, he made them believe they could once again return to the greatness of 2016, and the rest is history.

Dr Errol Narine Benjamin