As news broke of his historic electoral victory of undeniable proportions, Donald Trump fielded a flotilla of calls from family and friends – including me – in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
I told the President that he and his victory were a metaphor for America: we never surrender; we never back down; we fight, fight, fight.
His circuitous journey back to 1600 Penn is the type of second chance few others have known.
We discussed how he’d reshaped, diversified and expanded the demographic and geographic reach of the GOP. And I finished by thanking him for the opportunity he had given me to serve this great nation.
As for the big man himself, it was clear he felt humbled to have been voted in so resoundingly by America.
As news broke of his historic electoral victory of undeniable proportions, Donald Trump fielded a flotilla of calls from family and friends in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
He was energetic, despite the late hour. But most of all, he was ready to get back to work in the White House, ushing in a golden era for a more unified USA.
Of course, his detractors see red. So does the electoral map.
Every single state except for Delaware and Nebraska trended to Trump – even in Democratic strongholds still singing the blues.
This election came down to four demographic factors. Each of which favored him, not Kamala Harris.
A gender gap that wasn’t, a racial realignment, youth preferring the older candidate, and a working-class revolt against elites.
In the end, there was no historic female Democrat turnout as Kamala and so many misguided media mouths had promised.
If anything, we witnessed a reversing of the trend: Harris lost male voters by a staggering 13 percent to ‘Bro Show’ star Trump.
The would-be first ‘female POTUS’, meanwhile, way underperformed among women – winning them by just 7 percent (five points fewer than Biden’s 2020 margin).
Abortion turned out not to be the silver-bullet issue Harris had hoped for. This is a point proved no more obviously than by the Dems’ failure to rally Floridian women to vote against the state’s six-week ban.
Kamala also significantly underperformed among minority voters.
Black men swung 25 percent in Trump’s favor compared to 2020. Black women swung 7 percent his way.
Meanwhile, Hispanic men swung by an amazing 18 percent his way.
Young voters were unimpressed by Harris, too. She, like Nikki Haley, had obsessed over Trump’s age, missing the fact that young people don’t care how old their president is, so long as they can afford everyday life, buy a home and invest in their future.
While 18 to 29-year-olds favored Biden by 25 percent in 2020, on Tuesday night Kamala squeaked out a 5 percent margin.
Finally, Kamala’s overconfident team had also banked on juicing up a class divide.
They focused too much on the college-educated, especially in the suburbs around swing-state cities, at the expense of winning (or even understanding and respecting) working-class folks. This was costly: white non-college educated voters swung 5 points in Trump’s favour from 2020.
Those who snobbishly dismissed ‘MAGA’ as a base must now reckon with it as a widening movement, a not-so-silent majority that looks more like America than a Republican electorate ever has.
Trump has won states President Obama carried twice such as Florida, Iowa, and Ohio by bigger (double digit) margins. Meanwhile Harris won in blue states like Illinois, New Jersey and New Mexico with only single digit leads.
This election came down to four demographic factors. Each of which favored him, not Kamala Harris. A gender gap that wasn’t, a racial realignment, youth preferring the older candidate, and a working-class revolt against elites.
This is a repudiation of much of the mainstream media and their pollsters as well, whose daily coverage and ‘data’ has gone from biased to dangerous.
Trump’s on track to receive well over 300 electoral votes, the first popular vote victory for a Republican in 20 years, a bigger than expected Senate margin, and potentially a trifecta with a slim House majority.
It’s pure domination.
Now as he and his transition team form a government, he does so with the mind and track record of a successful businessman – and the experience (plus the war wounds) of a former president.
In Susie Wiles, co-manager of this stunningly successful 2024 campaign, our President-elect has chosen a White House Chief-of-Staff who understands him and his policy agenda. Note to Mark Cuban and his ilk: Trump hires on merit, and Wiles is certainly a ‘strong, intelligent woman’ who has demonstrated valuable leadership and management skills.
And then there is the woman they defeated. In the end, Kamala Harris was just another Never Trumper. No policy contrast. No vision. No rationale for running. Just a primal obsession with the destruction of one man and an infinite loop of ridicule and judgment for his followers.
She had help from an adoring, agreeing mainstream media and adjuncts on social media, billions to blow and a call to make history. Yet it was Donald J. Trump who made history – again.