The best explanation for trumps power can be found in Scott Adams’ book “winning Bigly“. Yes that Scott Adams. He claims that Trump is a skilled hypnotist, and is literally hypnotizing his followers to follow him unconditionally. He wrote the book just before Trump was elected, and was optimistic that Trump would use that skill to become a good president. Haven’t heard any regrets from him since then, and of course he also seems to have fallen down a racist rabbit hole in the meantime. But I think he was spot on in this particular book.