How did billionaire Donald Trump win the working class?

With all the explanations as to why Donald Trump won the election, there is one I simply can’t fathom: He was the champion of the “working class.” A billionaire who exploits every tax loophole, owns exclusive clubs, hotels and casinos no working class person could ever afford, uses his own private jet rather than fly with the masses or even in first class, and lives in a Manhattan glass tower is going to look out for the concerns of the working class?

Even if he succeeds in opening up more coal mines and drilling for oil in places currently off-limits and not abiding by the Paris climate treaty, that will hardly restore manufacturing jobs to the Rust Belt. It will make climate change impacts worse, and these will affect red as well as blue and purple states.

If someone can offer an explanation why voting for Trump seemed to the working-class voter to be in their best interest, I’d like to hear it.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 8:53 PM with the headline "How did billionaire Donald Trump win the working class?."