Correct.
Immediately upon Obama's 2008 inauguration there where two Tweets that mark the actual birth of the Alt Right, a racist reactionary Far Right Wing Conservative movement.
Simply on account of his racial background, racism got a spark, and that as well boosted Trump's 2016 run into the WH instead of the joke his previous forays witnessed them to be.
Russian shills and bots hopped on and have been exploiting it to the max, the result which we are steeped in everyday.