Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the forty-fifth president of the United States on January 20, 2017. How he won the presidency is the subject of this chapter. It is an important story for us because it foreshadows some of the leadership characteristics that he brought to the White House to launch his attack on the “deep state.” It’s also an important story because Trump’s election reflected a tipping point in American politics – a set of structural conditions and national anxieties that had developed gradually over several decades. Trump benefited from other tipping points once he became president, but this was the one that launched his startling rise to the presidency in the first place. Trump recognized and exploited this unique political opportunity to seize power.1 He was a maven whose inspirational promises and appeal to voters fit the times like a glove, enabling him to pursue his agenda for radical institutional change.