Recall that the whole "Trump is a demagogue who appeals to racist huwite supremacists" narrative exploded with the "Mexicans are rapists and murders" fake news. Before that they were just treating him like a clown. Previously the Obama birth certificate controversy had generated a few of those stories, but from my memory it was only places like MSNBC and NPR pushing a rayciss angle.

Then the third attack vector was the "he equivocated!" bullshit about the Unite the Right march, which mainly confirmed what some people already believed. Same with "it's a Muslim ban!'

I don't mention that for any particular reason. They would have found something to get at him with no matter what. Just pointing out how easy it is for the cathedral to latch on to the tiniest thing and use that to set the world against you. Nobody is immune.