It actually wasn't for the most part? At least his campaign was always predicted to implode, when voting starts at latest. Then he was given no real shot of winning and even taking down downballot Republicans with him.
Fundamentally I think the media really completely drops the ball. You can easily predict trends by looking at the West as a whole as even before Trump you saw:
- UKIP winning the 2014 EU elections in the UK
- Le Pen was polling in the upper 20s and even 30s in much of 2014 and 2015
- Tony Abbott won a landslide in 2013 and implemented very strict immigration policies
- Spanish elections in 2015 saw two new parties rise out of no where
It was obvious populism was on the rise by 2015 but the press really is unable to look at other nations for examples . Even now if you look at polls in other nations, the incumbent party is usually getting obliterated so this election really should be won by Trump in a walk but Trump's flaws are why its a tossup
