Did the political momentum make the leader or did the leader make their political momentum?

First I would just like to state that I am not endorsing a candidate here in this question or forum. Now with that out of the way I can move on to more pressing topics.

Now we have seen two of the more unique, if not, radical candidates for the presidential election this cycle. They are of course Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. What so many don't seem to realize is they are not the driving force. In reality there was a political movement going before they were on the stage. They championed it and took it on as theirs. Sanders performed well with this campaign but lost due to his own party not supporting him. To me this is more of the same. At least he launched his ideology into his party. Now, as for Trump it was a different story. He is much more of a refined fighter than any of the political figures of out time. He took on the Republican Party and won. He is ripping it apart and cam out with more support in the primary than any other candidate.

In either of these cases I really don't believe the candidate could have done this on their own. There was a much larger movement going on before they stepped onto the stage. The previous Republican leadership failed to deliver on what they said. So now their party lost faith and an "Outsider" was wanted. Trump was that outsider. But he is very savvy and stepped into this role perfectly. Whether he did it on purpose or not as you could tell it worked out for him well.

Do you think this was the case or how can you explain the success of these two political figures?