By Melissa (Y12)
Top Trumps… or should I say President? Here’s how Trump came out top in the 2024 US Presidential election.
Donald Trump scored a decisive victory in a deeply divided nation. And in so doing, the Republican president-elect exposed a fundamental weakness within the Democratic base and beat back concerns about his moral failings, becoming the first U.S. president with a felony conviction. Trump won over frustrated voters with bold promises that his fiery brand of America-first economic populism and conservative culture would make their lives better. He will be tested immediately, however, and there are reasons to believe his plans for mass deportations and huge tariffs may hurt the very people who enabled his victory. Still, he is set to enter the White House on January 20th, 2025, from an undisputed position of strength. Having been counted, Trump has become the first republican in two years to win the popular vote. The results left Democrats facing an urgent and immediate reckoning, with no obvious leader to unite the anti-Trump coalition and no clear plan to rebuild as an emboldened Trump prepares to re-take Washington. After the extensive showmanship, profanity and name-calling, Trump ultimately won over voters with grand promises to improve the economy, block the flow of immigrants on the Southern border and his siren call to “make America great again.”
Trump’s victory may have had as much to do with the fundamental challenges Harris faced all along. Facing deep voter frustration over the direction of the country — with Biden’s approval rating dismal — she never did distance herself from her party’s sitting president. Though Trump has now been the central figure in American politics for nine years, he convinced voters he represented change. Whether or not these ‘changes’ will be positive domestically for American citizens or internationally is another question. For example, many are concerned about the “gender gap” of Trump’s policy and his views on abortion. Leading to the unsurprising results of approximately 50% of women backing Harris, while about half of the male voters went for Trump, according to AP Vote Cast. That appears largely consistent with the shares for Biden and Trump in 2020.
Trump already succeeded in painting Democrats as culturally out-of-touch with middle America. Now Democrats are left to wonder how to reconnect with the parts of the country and slices of the electorate that rejected them. Meanwhile, America and the rest of the world are left anxiously awaiting what’s to come from the certainly controversial, President Trump.
