That's certainly part of the problem here, but in a political context that wasn't really the defining difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The real basis of their distinction was one of nationalism vs. globalism.
You didn't see Trump make a big deal about social/cultural issues during the election, probably because he could only win the election with support among large numbers of Americans who have already surrendered most of the cultural war already.
You make a good point.
People on the right were concerned when Trump seemed to go soft on (or not adequately address) gay marriage, abortion, religious protection, and other cultural third-rail issues, but it was Hillary Clinton who actually called people "deplorable" and "irredeemable."
When you need large numbers of cross-over voters to win, you cannot attract them by insulting their personal identifications. The left's big recent success in the "culture war" is "weaponizing" self-identification in every aspect of life now. We see it in race relations, gender conflict, bathroom policy, sports participation, and sexualizing children. It is now radicalizing our college campuses.
Trump was wise to avoid most trip-wires in his campaign by sticking to the national issues like border control, immigration roll-backs, repealing Obamacare, VA reform, putting education back to the states, repatriating offshore corporate capital, trade rebalancing, fighting terrorism, energy self-sufficiency, restarting manufacturing, tax cuts, Supreme Court nominations, rebuilding the military, upgrading our transportation infrastructure, etc.
These were the issues that Trump ran on, and they attracted Democrats and Independents who were willing and able to put cultural concerns aside for awhile because they didn't feel personally threatened by a Trump presidency.
-PJ