The majority of pundits and sophisticated analysts across the globe were shocked by Donald Trump’s victory on Nov 8, describing it as one of the greatest upsets in modern times. The pollsters once again got it absolutely wrong, calling into question their very existence.

Trump’s remarkable victory saw him defeat 16 candidates to secure the Republican nomination with some 14 million votes, which increased to an amazing 60 million votes and 290 electoral college votes to secure the US presidency. Along the way, he carried 30 states in the Union. But I suggest that anyone closely following the 18-month campaign (which Trump calls, with much justification, a “movement”) is not surprised.

So, how did a person who has never held public office, never run for office and is incredibly unqualified and unfit for high office, pull off this remarkable victory? Obviously, there are numerous causes. It is always over-simplistic to attribute a single reason to explain a complex issue.

I suggest that one of the principal reasons was that the majority of white voters, who represented 70 percent of the voters, voted for him: they understood Trump’s code that to make America great means to make “white America great” and the wall on the Mexican border is a euphemism to keep all non-whites out of the country from henceforth.

Hence, race played a pivotal, pre-dominant role in these elections. The race card worked. Race trumped ideology, class, gender and every other issue. If “it’s the economy, stupid” that captured the essence of a previous presidential election, then it is “it’s race, stupid” that is the telling phrase for the 2016 election...