Yes, it's a distraction, that is for sure. The cult of personality and culture is strong with some Trump supporters, I do not believe that if he does not deliver, his supporters will flee. Listen to conservative TV, radio, and read the websites, and the whole purpose is to make people angry at liberals, the left, or whatever. If you constantly expose yourself to that message, you will do anything to vote against the left, even if the people you vote for are con artists that use your support to advance their own interests.
Even if factories start magically reviving and popping up in the Rust Belt, they will be heavily automated with a fraction of the employees they used to employ and require skilled workers with proper training and education. New factories are not a place where everybody and their brother can land a job and be thrown on the line with minimal training.
Believing that Trump can revive the dead and dying factory and farm towns of Middle America is akin to a a Hail Mary pass at the end of a football game. It might work, but the odds are very slim. I have lived here and traveled here my whole life, I've watched these places decline further even in my lifetime; they do not turnaround in four years.