DJT's use of Twitter in 2016 allowed him to operate within his opponents' OODA loops.

DJT and his supporters could craft narratives directly, rather than going through traditional media.

DJT's information flow: DJT -> Twitter-based Supporters -> News Orgs -> Electorate

Other Candidate's info flows: Candidate -> News Orgs -> Electorate

So not only could DJT move faster, but he also didn't need permission/buy-in from Editors/Owners of news orgs.

Trumps ability to control the narrative is pretty much wholly based on his tweeting skills. He is legitimately a top tier tweeter up there with @dril and the likes. It is incredibly entertaining and end of the day that’s what politics is about now.

Way more likely that it was /r/the_donald. In my humble, biased opinion--since I was around there but never really active on Twitter.

There weren't a lot of 50+ year old folks on Reddit in 2016. Now there are, but that's because they've aged into that range.

Trump won by <1% in an election against a candidate who lost her only attempt at a primary and during a time period where western incumbents saw a 10+% drop due to their handling of covid inflation.

2024 isn't a story of how Trump outwitted his opponents but one of how his opponents tied their shoelaces together.

That is so true, and needs to be repeated more. DJT didn't win because he was so great. DJT won because the DMC candidate was so hilariously bad.