Donald Trump's election as the president of the United States was a big surprise for many people in the world. But Trump won because he identified the problems troubling the lower and middle classes in the US, such as social inequalilty and the negative consequences of globalization.

Trump effectively used new media to confront US elites, and responded to public concerns. He perceived the value of conflict between the elites and ordinary people and other social contradictions and helped instigate "politics of anger" and "politics of despair".

In any society, the media and elites that dominate public opinions are intoxicated by their past glories and thus suffer from the disease of self-arrogance. The outcome of the referendum in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union showed the British mainstream media and elites did not want to accept the truth. The result of the US presidential election similarly exposed the self-congratulatory attitude of the US mainstream media and elites who turned a deaf ear to the voice of the grassroots people.