Altogether, as we position these findings in a body of extant work that considers ideological horseshoes (van Elsas et al., 2016), it seems that support for populists was tempered by differing forms of social media and traditional media use, and almost certainly not homogenous communicative networks, especially those offline. While it cannot be disputed that social media was a central element in the campaign, and Trump’s mode of Twitter-first public pronouncements may well have propelled him to victory, the evidence presented here is that it was not simply frequency of use, or even platform, but that vital aspects of digital and traditional journalism may have been lacking. As demonstrated elsewhere (Groshek & Tandoc, 2017), a journalism of reciprocity has simply not evolved in a meaningful way, and loosening of gatekeeping certainly opened the doors to a mediated information environment that while diverse and expansive was also hostile and prone to misinformation that may well have reinforced citizens’ pre-existing viewpoints.