Trump understands this, intuitively. He is not a grand strategist, but an irrational man who rose in an era of irrationality. Politics is not always about the elevation of the best candidate. Indeed, I would argue that it rarely elevates the best. But it always rewards the person who is best suited and positioned for the moment.

In that way, Trump’s hatred, racism, insecurity, anti-intellectualism and grudge against the elite society that had always disdained him was perfectly suited for conservatives who were entertaining the same notions but had no one to openly champion their intolerance with effrontery.

On Monday in Houston, Trump was again whipping a rally crowd into a fear frenzy with his dystopian vision of America. He said:

“Democrat immigration policies allow poisonous drugs and MS-13 to pour into our country. And Democrat sanctuary cities release violent criminals from jail and straight into your neighborhoods.”

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As the audience chanted, “CNN sucks,” he said, “Don’t worry. I don’t like them either, O.K.?” He added:

“Do you know how the caravan started? Does everybody know what this means? I think the Democrats had something to do with it.”

There is no proof that the caravan of Honduran migrants traveling through Mexico toward the United States was instigated by the Democrats, and the claim is ridiculous on its face. He continued:

“So as the caravan — and, look, that is an assault on our country. That’s an assault. And in that caravan you have some very bad people. You have some very bad people. And we can’t let that happen to our country.”

There is no proof that there are “very bad people” in the caravan, and it is more than a thousand miles away from our border.