Most of Trump opponents were on the wrong side of the base...
So when Trump hit them with those issues... establishment Candidates were impotent. Bannon had his pulse on the base. He shared his wisdom with Trump. Once Trump went Bannon only cruz or paul had the credibility with the massive "Bannon" base. No establishment politician had a chance once he went anti-immigration, drain the swamp and replace Obamacare and stop wasting money on stupid wars.
Also...
Having a big social media audience made the establishment media... much weaker.
Trump could tweet and get his message out really fast... blocking the media' attempt to shape the narrative and promote his competition.
As Bannon told us many times... a non establishment democrat could do the same thing.
Bernie is proof. Imagine a non commie / anti establishment democrat talking about how the insiders are screwing the base with bad immigration polices and insurance company care rather than free health care... and job protection resulting in competition for employees hence dramatically higher wages from everyone from restaurant workers, to construction to tech company engineers.
Then what if they promised to fix the inequality by eliminating income taxes on non .5%?
Almost every working taxpay in the country is being screwed by both parties...
They could be united rather easily.... unfortunately the swamp and the establishment will target that person...