Throughout this entire election cycle, Establishment media, politicians and political consultants — and even many conservatives — have gotten Donald Trump’s staying power wrong at every turn and are now left dumbfounded by his success.

Many believed Jeb Bush’s massive campaign war chest would lock up the nomination for the brother and son of presidents, but it ended up that no amount of cash could save the fumbling candidate who lacked charisma and couldn’t generate enthusiasm.

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Trump was laughed at when he entered the race. Many thought his candidacy would flame out quicker than a summer romance. But his campaign has polled as the top candidate in the GOP primary in 33 of 34 national polls since mid-July and has shocked even the most experienced pollsters. Now, Trump has won three of four early state contests.

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Karl Rove in September said he believed that Trump’s trajectory had peaked. “There is some evidence in private polling that he has peaked and has begun to decline. If you look at it from a month ago, in CNN he’s down 6,” said Rove. “So yeah, I do think it’s begun to fade, he’s not going to disappear, he’s going to be a presence.”

Then, there is Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, who has been adamantly against Trump but backtracked his “Peak Trump” theory, saying that he overestimated the other GOP candidates’ ability to pre-empt Trump.

At the beginning of the campaign cycle, Trump made immigration the center of his platform and pressed the topic into the conversation, saying that he would build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best,” he said during his campaign announcement on June 16, saying some were criminals and rapists. “Correct” thinkers were appalled.

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“Foolishly, some candidates think they don’t need the Hispanic vote in the primary, so they pander to the voters with extreme views instead of just showing us who they are,” said Rosario Marin, former treasurer of the United States under President George W. Bush.

Even the Wall Street Journal editorial page ran an editorial in August stating that supporting Trump’s immigration proposal would make the GOP the “deportation party.”

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But again everyone was proved wrong when Trump swept the Hispanic vote in the Nevada caucuses with 45 percent of the vote.

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Then in December, just days after the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” This was sure to be the nail in the coffin for the Trump campaign if you paid any attention to the media. Many of the GOP candidates, — including: Sen Lindsey Graham, Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, Gov. Chris Christie, and Sen. Ted Cruz — echoed the cognoscenti called out Trump for his rhetoric and proposal.

Flash-forward to Trump’s big victory in South Carolina, where CBS News exit polling showed that 75 percent of voters supported Trump’s proposal on banning Muslims from entering the United States while only 23 percent opposed it. Although the proposal has been mocked and derided, it has clearly resonated with many people concerned about terrorism in America, a fear the political elite have underestimated.

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Some pundits, such as ABC News commentator Cokie Roberts, fear a Trump nomination now more than ever. In November, Roberts penned a piece with her husband Steven regarding Trump’s lead in the polls. “Can he actually win the nomination and even the presidency? We firmly believe the answer is no,” said the two writers. On Wednesday morning, after the Nevada caucuses, Cokie Roberts made an appearance on “Morning Joe” where she slammed the GOP front-runner.

“Donald Trump clearly is scheduled to win the nomination and it’s not funny anymore,” said Cokie Roberts. “The outrageous comments are not funny, they’re bullyish, and that behavior could be elected president, and that is not funny.”

After four early state contests, Trump has won three and is gearing up for big wins in the Super Tuesday contests. It is looking all the more likely that Trump could be the GOP nominee and face Hillary Clinton in the general election. But Tuesday night on the “Kelly File” on Fox News, senior political analyst Brit Hume said Trump is not the man to take on Clinton.

“Well, if Trump wins the nomination, and he is certainly the man to beat, I think it will be awfully hard for him to beat Hillary Clinton,” said Hume. “Because, you look at negatives, negatives matter in the long-term a lot, he has the highest negatives in the field in either party.”

They still don’t seem to be learning.