Trump, despite his flaws, didn't come off as "elite". There's couple videos of him making unplanned stops of his limo, coming out to take pictures with the fire fighters. Similar thing he did when he took his car out to visit the crowd outside the hospital when he got covid. He didn't have to do those things. But he did.

Him as well as his grandfather were hated in NY because despite the money, he didn't talk like the NY elites. He was rude, brash, blunt, politically incorrect. On one hand he was a showboater and exaggerated. On another hand, he would speak bluntly on things like "Putin isn't the only one who's a killer, you think US is innocent?"

https://youtu.be/y7ErFCqCXcg

They don't like their evil to be talked out loud.

Before the elections, reddit (and people) used to praise Trump. Look at this post with 23k upvotes and over 11k comments (Post has since been deleted by reddit).

http://archive.is/8TvxG