I think it would better to say that 1/2 of America was looking for someone who was anti establishment. You could have put Mr. Potato Head up against Clinton in 2016 running the same platform and would have gotten a similar outcome. It seems 1/2 the country feels that it was about a specific person as opposed to a outrage against the corruption and degradation of America. Trump was merely the wearer of that mantle, he was not the creator of that movement, he simply did a good job of molding it.
Against someone who'd been at the highest levels of government for...40, 45 years? He was equally establishment to Hillary - but I think being President lowered the anti-establishment credibility for Trump, leading to a big part of his loss.
Perhaps. But it seems to undercut your thesis that it was about that one specific person. You'd need to expand the thesis at least enough to make it about these two specific people.
Which is a bit difficult to swallow. He had a near-unanimous approval rating among his partisans, comparable to the partisan approval rating of his very popular predecessor. I wouldn't go so far as the "savior" insult by the OP, but I don't really think it can be held that his popularity was solely about rejection of another candidate.
Oh, I think he was popular in his own right. I do maintain a large part of his popularity and success in both elections (yes, even 2020 where he lost) was about rejection of the establishment in general, which yes, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton both represented.
