Again, Trump's calculation that his supporters care more about him simply BEING president, and lashing out at the kinds of people they too despise (in this case "the Europeans") than they do even about their own personal economic situations or jobs, so far appears to be accurate.
I think it's also anecdotally true that voters don't really vote based on the economy, *unless the economy is tanking,* in which case they flock to the party not in power. If the economy is good, people vote based on what they value. And tribe is something people really do value.
There have been politicians who have been successful at selling the notion of America itself -- the whole country -- as a tribe. But that's not what Donald Trump is doing. He is zeroing in on race and religion, i.e, white Christians, as his tribe. And clearly that appeal works.
It's chilling and uncomfortable to think about, but you couldn't have had plurality support for interning Japanese Americans without this tribal phenomenon, for example. Or Jim Crow. Tribe is a thing. Some politicians simply feel no compunction exploiting it.
