With the progression of the 2016 United States election, every citizen shares a common, lingering question: “How could a candidate like Trump reach so far in the election?” Originally, the general public dismissed businessman Donald Trump’s campaign humorously and continued to see how the race progressed. However, when the amount of social media coverage on Trump began skyrocketing, the businessman was given lots of recognition, followed by a substantial crowd of supporters.  Citizens began indulging themselves in Trump’s controversial views and ideology, which resulted in the audience having passionate feelings towards this campaign, whether they were for and against it. Also, Trump continuously emphasizes growing issues in the United States, in which are intended to make citizens fearful of electing another true politician. Donald Trump, despite being an unlikely candidate, has managed to gain support and has become the leading Republican candidate through the use of fear and early recognition in social media.

While social media often ridicules Donald Trump’s campaign, it is very unlikely that he would have reached this far in the election without its help. As the public’s primary source of information, social media resulted in citizens having more interest in his campaign. The controversial statements that he has made immediately caught the attention of social media, thus granting him lots of exposure regarding his politics. Even President Obama points towards the press as the main reason for Trump getting this far in the election by giving him “free and uncritical exposure”. While Trump may not always benefit from the abundance of social media coverage, it is inevitable that it is one of the main factors that enabled him to become recognized and gain supporters.

Moreover, Trump capitalizes on this publicity to emphasize the growing issues of the United States and makes the audience fearful. Since he offers a completely different perspective than other candidates, many citizens believe that Trump is the only one capable of attacking such issues. In fact, a recent study shows that while only 19% of Clinton supporters believe that America’s situation is worsening, over 80% of Trump supporters believe so. This data is not surprising, however, as Trump’s entire supporter population is based off the ideology that the United States’ issues will keep growing if politicians like Hillary Clinton are elected. For example, terrorism, as attacks are becoming more prevalent, is a growing issue that will be very difficult for other cautious and calculated candidates to stop. However, many believe that Trump’s aggressive and incautious attitude will enable him to tackle these problems successfully. Now that Trump has captured the attention of the entire nation, he attempts to convince the people that he can solve the problems that politicians cannot – an idea that many voters are beginning to see as unrealistic. The use of fear and social media that Trump uses to gain support has allowed such an inexperienced and controversial figure to reach very far in this election.