Clinton even won the popular vote, trumping Trump (unforceful pun) by 51-49. One of the reasons, apart from the domineering population of white-uneducated-males in the US, was the fact that Trump also took home the crucial swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania which accounted for a considerable amount of electoral votes. By federal law, the voting collegium which represents the States, can’t override the popular vote, and hence, despite vociferous protests by anti-Trump campaigns after the election results were announced, the collegium elected Trump the President (For further reading on the topic, read: Trump won thanks to flawed, archaic American electoral system). But by this article, I try to reveal what were the veiled reasons behind Trump’s victory apart from all the mentioned ones here and the media all around the globe.

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The German word ‘schadenfreude’ basically means “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.” A very simple example to gauge a more comprehensive understanding can be when a person falls from a chair, instead of helping them, the others around burst into laughter, making fun of the incident. Schadenfreude in our daily lives to an extension is the colloquial form of the slapstick comedy of the old Hollywood, traversing back to the times of Chaplin. It emanates from a lack of self-esteem and the group identity that human beings coagulate in their lifespan by identifying a common denominator with several other people. This gives rise to the idea of a communion, a prime example of which can be football, or in India’s matter, religion. This is exactly what happened with Trump and the media, which is quickly turning into the greatest romantic affair of the 21st century. It was the media’s negative portrayal of Trump and their relentlessness in discrediting him in the public eye that gave him ample time on air, just before and during the elections. In an incisive research by Professor David JY Combs, Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, he puts forth that “party affiliation and the intensity of ingroup identification strongly predicted whether these events produced schadenfreude.” This feeling of hatred and negativity that festered perversely in the Democratic camp during the elections gave rise to a lot of popularity for Trump, even though it was objectively negative in nature. His antics on screen were broadcasted on primetime and almost any time by the media, which gave him face time with the people of America. Be it him mocking a disabled journalist, or vitiating Ted Cruz on national television, every event that transpired and revolved around Trump led to the rise in his number of supporters. His cartoonish and nakedly self-serving demeanor often beguiles opponents into thinking that he is doing so in his vanity and deem it a hubris act of self-destruction and nothing more.

 

His provision of guilt-free schadenfreude came as a welcome change for the general populous, who would openly mock him, almost metamorphosing him into a caricature, more so than he even is. He made national debates and rallies of important issues like economics, education, healthcare, and migration seem like a meme or a fail video compilation which caught the gaze of people. The media played an important role in embellishing this effect, which eventually has had toxic effects not only for the country, by the world at large. It reinforced the structured idea of a hegemonic force exploiting media in a convoluted way put forth by Italian philosophist Antonio Gramsci. Channels found him interesting and arresting viewership and diligently made an effort to screen his antics on television or some of his dirty events from the past. The BuzzFeed controversy and his involvement