No, you just didn't see the connection or more likely you've lost objectivity on this and are no better than the screeing reactionaries that we used to mock on here. This is a gang bollocking, a baying mob.
And don't kid yourself, this is all party lines. Name me the last Republican President or even major figure who didn't have a substantial hate campaign against them. Every candidate or President they've had since the rise of social media and the integration of it within to traditional media is painted not just as having bad ideas but also being corrupt, racist, simultaneously appealing only to dumb rednecks or rich people somehow, and basically are immoral or idiotic people.
We've not quite moved into that territory yet over here but we're not far away.
Kayne went on live TV and said that George Bush doesn't care about black people. The Beautiful Mind like connections that people drew between him and bin Laden or various corporate interests to suggest he was feathering his own nest. They said he was an idiot thicko who was controlled by Rumsfeld. Yet somehow also a mastermind who invaded Iraq for revenge.
Romney, Palin, Ryan, McCain, Carson, even Ted Cruz who seems to be the human equivalent of Kermit the Frog had to run that gauntlet. It's how the American Left fights their elections and the media cycles into it. This is no different, it's just a lot louder than last time as social media has taken off since Bush. Make no mistake that if Pence takes over he'll go through the same thing as will anybody else.
This obviously negates the whole thing that the President is nowhere near as powerful as people seem to believe. He's not exactly the Queen but the idea that Trump rules with some iron fist and the Party just are along for the ride is demonstrably false. Trump can't do anything outside the odd executive decision without the Party.