Reflections On Trump’s Incredible Victory

The 2024 Election presents a surprising picture of America’s political future

Donald J. Trump will once again be president. This seemed impossible when he left the White House, but he made the improbable real in decisive fashion. Trump not only won the Electoral College, but secured the popular vote as well. He outpaced down ballot Republicans, demonstrating the people like him more than the GOP. He even exceeded my own optimistic expectations, winning 312 electoral votes and wrapping up the election by the time the sun rose Wednesday morning. 

There are a lot of things to say about Trump’s victory. He goes into the White House in a much stronger position to shape the country in his image. The GOP is firmly under Trump’s control, with Republicans now competing to out-Trump one another rather than defy the party leader. The public is more aligned with Trump’s policies than they were in 2016. Libs seem resigned to treating Trump as part of the new normal. 

What Trump will do in his next term is a topic to be explored for another day. Today’s topic is about the election itself and what to take away from it.

Two key points from previous articles were reaffirmed in the election. They are:

1. Trump is more popular than the GOP

2. Trump’s unique circumstances should’ve made it impossible for him to win. Instead, he won by a lot–and it wasn’t much of a surprise.

Along with these, there are other critical points about this election that need to be understood and explain why Trump won.

The Democrats’ Horrible Candidates

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the worst presidential candidates in American history. Kamala proved to the country why she had to drop out early in the 2020 Democratic primary. She’s weird, un-charismatic, stupid, inauthentic, and too far-left for the public. She was horrible in interviews and stuck to strange platitudes on the stump. She couldn’t even do heavily-edited interviews without problems. While some liberals insist her campaign was perfectly run, it was in fact a disaster. Kamala’s campaign raised way more money than Trump’s and boasted a more sophisticated operation. She was also running a convicted and twice-impeached man the media dubbed the next Hitler. She lost in a blowout. As a friend aptly summarized, the Democrats ran a “retarded black whore and spent a billion dollars and lost the popular vote.” Her defeat illustrates how uniquely bad of a politician she is. She’s only risen to the top due to certain feminine charms and her race. There is no merit involved in her story.

The only worse candidate than her is the current president. Biden can’t form complete sentences, struggles to walk, and mistakes European leaders either for Putin or long-dead figureheads. No one was excited to vote for Biden. His few advocates were forced to clap like seals when he finished a tortured press conference without keeling over. If Biden had remained the nominee, he would’ve lost Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and maybe even Minnesota. He would’ve lost battleground states by lopsided margins and the race would’ve been called before midnight. Hardly anyone would’ve doubted Trump would win the election prior to November 5th. Kamala made the race a bit more competitive simply because she could walk on her own, form complete sentences, and inspire the Democratic base more than Biden could. But she was too terrible of a politician to make this a nailbiter.

No matter who the Democrats picked as their nominee, that person would’ve lost. Team Blue was saddled with the Biden administration’s dismal record.This was especially true for Vice President Harris, who hilariously claimed to be the change candidate while being a senior member of the current admin. The public blamed Biden for the immigration crisis, the lackluster economy, high inflation, and the chaotic world picture. They wanted real change, and only Trump could deliver that.

Trump’s Bizarre Multiracial Coalition

Donald Trump ran the most right-wing campaign in modern American history, even more than his 2016 bid. His primary pitch is that dangerous foreigners are taking over this country and we must mass deport them to liberate America. He talked about immigration non-stop on the trail. The press noted how he would return to immigration even when talking about other issues, whether it be healthcare or the economy. He didn’t talk about immigration in “polite” terms. In Trump’s rhetoric, foreigners were “eating the dogs” and “poisoning our blood.”

Trump’s campaign exemplified the Sailer Strategy, which posits that the GOP should double-down on identity issues to increase its share of the white vote. While Trump won the election, his white vote diminished from 2016. The biggest boost he received was from non-whites. He won 46 percent of the Hispanic vote, nearly 40 percent of the Asian vote, and even nabbed 13 percent of the black vote. He did this while running a campaign the media labeled the most racist in recent history. Just a week before the election, a comedian made fun of Hispanics and blacks at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. It appeared to have not bothered the Donald’s “diverse” supporters.

These results have revived talk of the “multiracial working class” and “multiracial populism.” These ideas, popularized by people who are not keen on Trump, stress that the GOP should adopt wonky “economic populism” to secure this demographic and deemphasize the identity issues. Trump did the opposite, and won over more non-whites than any Republican in the 21st century. 

There is a populist element in that it’s anti-establishment and revels in boisterous rhetoric, but it’s very different from what the professional populists want. One could argue that Trump’s appeal was “multiracial racism” or “multiracial machismo”  rather than “multiracial populism.”

Trump’s new coalition deserves more analysis, which I promise to deliver in the future.

The War Of The Sexes Election

This was the most gendered election in history. It’s not the first time Trump beat a woman to become president, but the campaign revealed a starker gender divide and they both conveyed a strong gender-coded message. Trump’s campaign was very bro-y, with him appearing on several podcasts directed at young men. This paid off as he did very well among men of all colors. His improvement among non-whites was largely due to male support. Trump still retained the support of a bare majority of white women, so his victory wasn’t entirely due to men. But they played a decisive role.

Kamala’s campaign was almost entirely centered around women. Her campaign wrapped itself in the lyrics and themes taken from female pop stars. Her staff tried to make her “Brat” after the Charli XCX album. Democrats touted the Taylor Swift endorsement as if they won the Super Bowl. They even released press statements based around Swift lyrics. From her speeches to her ads, there was a very feminine vibe to the campaign. It’s also one of the reasons she lost. It was a “girlboss” campaign, and few men wanted to support it. Once Brat Summer wore off, the campaign began browbeating men to vote for Kamala. This resulted in Barack Obama’s condescending lecture to black men and weird celebrity ads threatening white men if they fail to vote for her. Men decided they had enough of the nagging and voted for Trump.

This campaign signifies how America’s turbulent gender conflict will affect our politics. The Democrats’ core voter is now unmarried, college-educated women. Men of all ages and races are going Republican. This will shape the politics to come.

A lot more can be said about the race, but I will leave it to these thoughts for now. Enjoy the whitepills as we prepare to turn America into MAGA country.