Just before Donald Trump spoke last month in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman nearly took his life, a short video played with images of George Washington crossing the Delaware river during the Revolutionary War.
“When will they ever learn?” the narrator asked in a deep voice. “This man cannot be stopped.”
After a commanding victory over Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, in which he swept the battleground states and held a solid lead in the popular vote, the 78-year-old Republican is heading back to the White House for a second term.
Trump’s return represents a stunning political comeback for a man who had left office in disgrace in 2021 — defeated by Joe Biden, impeached for a second time, and widely condemned for seeking to overthrow the 2020 election and inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
It also marks a new era for the US and the world, reflecting a sharp rightward lurch in the American electorate, which has not only embraced Trump’s brand of demagoguery, but also his “America First” nationalist agenda.
Trump will now feel vindicated to press ahead with plans that he has laid out throughout the campaign: high tariffs on a vast swath of imports, more confrontational relationships with traditional US allies, and a massive crackdown on illegal immigration. Trump may also feel free to deliver the retribution he has promised against his political foes, testing the country’s democratic institutions.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said during his victory speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Throughout the campaign, Trump was able to shed the stigma of all his legal troubles, including one criminal conviction in New York and other state and federal charges.
He benefited from the country’s rejection of the policies of the administration run by Biden and Harris, particularly the high inflation that unfolded under their watch, a surge in migrants at the southern border, their inability to end wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and a perception that they were too liberal on social issues such as transgender rights.
Trump was also able to overcome his biggest headwind — the backlash against conservative efforts to curb abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling to strip women of the constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
The new rightwing coalition, built by Trump and his allies in recent months, was driven by his strong support among male voters, gains across minority groups, and a big advantage among non-college educated Americans more generally. Disregarded were the violent rhetoric, misogyny and xenophobia permeating Trump’s speeches.
“We put together a coalition of groups that hadn’t necessarily identified with the Republican Party and did very well with them, and that’s what propelled us to a very significant victory,” said Pete Hoekstra, chair of the Michigan Republican party, speaking to the Financial Times at its party in Novi, in the western outskirts of Detroit. He cited support from members of the Middle Eastern community as well as members of the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters Union.
The loss to Trump will trigger a big round of soul-searching among Democrats, touching on not only their fading appeal with lower and middle-class Americans, but also the ill-fated decision to first back Biden’s re-election bid, then switch to Harris at the eleventh-hour.
Although Harris shifted to the political centre during her short campaign, courting anti-Trump Republicans and national security hawks while taking a more business-friendly approach to economic policy, too few voters occupied that space in a country that has become far more populist over the years.
Democrats will now have to regroup in opposition to the new American right under Trump, which appears far stronger than it was after the 2016 election. It now includes an alliance with Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, and a potential heir in JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is now set to become vice-president, who has embraced populist views on trade and economic policy, and vowed to be tougher on Wall Street.
Trump has also grown closer in recent weeks with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the vaccine sceptic and scion of the famed Massachusetts political dynasty, who mounted his own White House bid before endorsing Trump. He is now in line for a role in his administration.
But even before he sets out to tap the loyalists he needs to staff his administration, Trump will bask in his political renaissance. “We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” he said.
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