Thats the brilliance of it; he ran an inpopular platform intended to help the rich get richer and simultaneously fought a culture war that gained him the support of the massive, white, rural, uneducated class.
A side anecdote: I have an acquatance of a friend who is both Brown, and a Trump Supporter - I was baffled and couldn't understand why they would support an openly racist candidate.
Well, turned out they were from a family of Old money out of Dubai and Trumps tax and business policies put in place GREATLY assisted their family real estate company. I think they tripled their revenue in 4 years, but i'm not entirely certain - I've just picked it up through context.
At the end of the day money talks. You could be completely against Trump’s rhetoric but I know people who held their nose and voted for him due to the breaks
He claims to hate the same people they hate. He was a Democrat until he decided to run as a Republican.
"In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat,” Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in a 2004 interview. “It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn’t be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats." - Donald Trump
Whether or not he really hates them is anyone's guess. Personally, I think that after his foray in birther-land, he realized that Republican voters would like it if he dropped the mask and let his racism shine through. Now he just spews hate at anyone right wing voters hate and they lap it up.
Trump pandered to get the votes. The voters knew they were being pandered to, and went with it willingly. There were several interesting times where Trump tried to not be batshit crazy, and they full ass ignored him.
He's only their messiah as long as he functions as a mirror for them to see themselves in power.