Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States. . . again. It was a historic political comeback for a candidate rejected by the people just four years ago. But this time, Trump took almost every coveted state: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. And he leads in Nevada and Arizona. The entire blue wall. . . turned red. And unlike 2016, this was not just an Electoral College victory. Surprising pollsters and betting markets alike, Trump also won the popular vote. To top it off, Republicans took control of the Senate, gaining four seats, and maybe more by the time this episode airs. Simply put, it was a red landslide.
It is extremely rare in our history for a president to come back after losing a reelection bid so badly. In fact, Trump's rebound is bigger than Nixon's—bigger than Napoleon's in 1815.
And yet it happened on Tuesday night with the most flawed candidate American politics has ever seen. How did he do it?
If you were only watching cable news over the last few years, you would be shocked by the outcome. But if you had been reading The FP, you probably were not surprised. Yes, Kamala had the support of Beyoncé, Oprah, Taylor Swift, and almost every A-lister with a pulse. She outraised Trump by around $600 million. She was endorsed by industry leaders in science and economics. But it’s been clear for some time now that the Democrats do not have the buy-in or trust of the American people. FP senior editor Peter Savodnik said it best: “They didn’t lose because they didn’t spend enough money. They didn’t lose because they failed to trot out enough celebrity influencers. They lost because they were consumed by their own self-flattery, their own sense of self-importance.”
Still, in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, CNN and MSNBC tried to explain away Trump's appeal, and the profound failure of the left, with accusations that the American people are the ones to blame.
But those explanations are not right.
As exit polls came in, Trump showed strength with black and Latino voters. CNN exit polls showed he won about 13 percent of black voters (up from 8 percent in 2020) and 45 percent of Latino voters (up from 32 percent last election). It shows a massive pickup. He won among voters who make less than $100,000. And compared to 2020, Trump improved in cities, in rural areas, in suburbs. . . . as CNN's John Berman put it: “It’s kind of an everywhere improvement.”
Here today to make sense of it all is FP contributor and Newsweek opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon, pundit and political powerhouse Brianna Wu, and FP Senior Editor Peter Savodnik.
We reflect on why Democrats lost so dramatically and decisively; how Trump’s comeback happened, despite an impeachment, being found guilty of sexual assault, and 116 indictments; how Trump found success with black and Latino voters; what the next four years might look like with Trump returning to the White House; and if this will be a wake-up call for Democrats.
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The Dems made a huge mistake by underestimating women and assuming that the only thing that college-educated white women like me care about is abortion.
I care about my daughter not walking into a bathroom where there’s a man dressed as a woman or my daughter playing a sport and not being ousted by a biological male. I care about my white son not getting pushed aside because he’s not female or a minority. I care about the economy. I care about free speech. I care about national security. I care about Israel defeating Islamic terrorists.
I don’t care what Queen Latifah thinks. I don’t care what Jimmy Kimmel thinks. I don’t care what my Facebook “friends” think.
The View and MSNBC just continue to feed the histrionics. Columbia University canceling classes and Northwestern offering post-election cocoa, cookies, and crafts (I wish I were joking) for distraught college students doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. It scares me. It makes me wonder what this generation is going to do when faced with real challenges.
Retreating to safe spaces to whine is not an option for real adults!
I enjoyed this conversation very much and I appreciated everyone’s contributions. But I’m not a fan of Brianna, who is a man whose given name is John, having the gall to call out *other* trans people. He supports child transition, and clearly expects women to pretend we think he’s a woman, with all that that imposes on us and our civil rights. Isn’t that hypocritical? Also, who appointed HIM a “public figure” who influences politics? He entered public conversation during gamer gate by pretending to be an oppressed woman. I just don’t appreciate that. Also he uses the term “TERF” which is a radical, misogynistic, trans propaganda term that means “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” and is used against all women who don’t support male abuses of women, even women who are totally supportive of female trans people in women’s spaces. Finally, he lies openly. He will not “literally die” without gigantic, static quantities of synthetic estrogens and testosterone blockers. He calls this “healthcare” but there is no scientific evidence that messing with one’s endocrine system in such a way improves physical or mental health, longterm, and there is actually evidence to the contrary. To be healthy, he would need to stop taking the hormones and hormone blockers he currently takes, and take male-typical amounts of testosterone. But he doesn’t want to be physically healthy. So then stop pretending it’s about “healthcare.” Nobody should be paying for men to try to look like women. That’s a cosmetic desire. Not a medical need. That doesn’t mean we want trans people to be unhappy or sick. It just means we’re not willing to physically harm mentally ill people when they ask us to.