You actually partially answered your own question. Trump is a con man. Before getting into office he could promise anything - and he did - and enough people said, "OK, he's a racist asshole, but at least he's speaking about my problems than just ignoring them." The other huge thing Trump did in the primary was END the Bush legacy. Trump verbally pummeled "Jeb!" Bush.

Once he was in office, Trump showed his quality. Particularly his qualities of corruption, incompetance and stupidity. Anyone half-way objective understood how Trump could have two Atlantic City casinos go bankrupt. Even with that horrible track record, Joe Biden was so bad that had Covid not hit, I think Trump would have won reelection.

As it stands now, I'll be leaving "President" blank on my ballot in 2024. I'm long done with "lesser of two evils" voting. My hope is that the Greens will get over themselves and run Jesse Ventura. That would be a campaign to enjoy. Vanilla, Chocolate and Pistachio Ventura!