Despite having no political or military service prior to his presidency, in November of 2016, Donald J. Trump was awarded, arguably, the most powerful job in the world. During the speech in which Trump introduced his partaking in the race for commander in chief in The United States of America, Trump talked about building walls to keep out certain groups of people. The speeches made then, and many times after having been filled with racial slur, critique against the mainstream media, second guessing democratic institutions in his country and disbelief in what he refers to as “the elite”. And yet, win he did. This paper aims to try and understand why. By using a process tracing method with a theory-building approach the paper will combine existing theories which, argued in the text, needs to be combined. The empirical mechanism built in this paper show that the ability for a figure like Trump to rise to power, was created long before he stepped onto that podium, through major cultural changes in the country and systematic structures within the Republican Party. Mainly the focus will be in the era postcivil rights movement with the counterculture that followed. The thesis will by combining theoretical mechanisms, to build a coherent theory to try and understand the phenomenon that is a possibility of a figure like Donald J. Trump in the white house. Even more alarming, a Trump who is a leader that through his rhetoric qualify as a populist.