Votes are still being tabulated this morning as I write this piece, but, to my disappointment, it appears Donald Trump may have won the 2024 election. That is a tragedy for our country and reason to fear for the future.
Some will say the election is behind us and that it is time to accept Trump returning to power. This is a mammoth lift for many of us, given who Trump is, the things he said during the election, and his agenda. I’m not there yet.
Franklin Roosevelt told America in his Inaugural address in 1933, “We have nothing to fear except fear itself.” Sorry America, with another Trump presidency, we have a lot to fear.
Earlier this week, I wrote drafts of two editorials, but neither fit the apparent outcome of the election. The first anticipated a Harris win, my now-embarrassing prediction. It was titled, “Hallelujah! Now Let’s Get to Work.” The piece offered Harris advice on how to reunite America.
The other piece, anticipating a narrow Trump win, was titled, “Tell Me It Isn’t So.” That piece expressed concern about Trump claiming a win despite the final vote, commented that throughout the campaign, Trump “hasn’t been right,” and shared the worry that if Trump won, J.D. Vance likely would be a future U.S. president.
I closed my piece expressing the hope that if Trump won, he would change. I wrote that one thing might prove Trump-doomsayers wrong: “The nasty, racist, misogynistic, lying Trump who has polluted our airways for the last two years could change. I would welcome that change, but don’t expect it. A 78-year-old man with discernible mental deterioration will not want to sit in the White House to oversee implementation of the policy agenda outlined in Project 2025. Deporting millions of “illegals,” many of whom have been in the United States for years, is not easy work. Will Trump want to forego rounds of golf to personally design the “deportation camps” required to implement the plan?”
Trump’s victory speech earlier this morning included a lengthy encomium to Elon Musk, the billionaire who pumped millions into the Trump campaign’s closing months and who has been promised a job in the new administration. Trump’s untethered comments about Musk are reason to worry. It looks like Musk got his money’s worth.
Why did Trump win? With advance apologies to some Trump voters, let me suggest that many Americans were not ready for a Black, South Asian woman president. Other Trump voters bought into the nasty Trump campaign message that Harris was “low IQ,” a communist (remember “Comrade Kamala?”) or believe that Trump kept America out of wars through skillful diplomacy. I could go on, but Trump’s campaign took advantage of naïve and lazy voters and unleashed the weapon of mass destruction of aggressive lying, discrediting the mainstream press and appealing to our fears and prejudices.
Trump is now president-elect, according to Fox News and what I expect will be a growing number of other news outlets. That makes today a sad day for America. We appear to have elected a criminal to the White House who believes “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
In the coming days, we will read about Trump’s plans to dismiss pending criminal actions against him and to vacate his 34 felony convictions. He will also seek to end State criminal prosecutions against him. The “January 6 patriots,” or at least most of them, will soon be released from jail.
I expect outrageous Trump political appointments, including RFK, Jr., Musk, and possibly the Federal Judge who dismissed the indictments brought against Trump for absconding with federal secret documents and handling them recklessly. Will Judge Aileen Cannon be the next Attorney General? Given Trump’s top priorities, she would be a good choice.
I hope Trump does not follow through on his promises of retribution against Judges, prosecutors, the mainstream media, writers, and other political opponents, but expect it. The retribution may be executed subtly, but it will come.
Vladimir Putin is celebrating Trump’s election. The probable president-elect has promised to end the war in Ukraine before Inauguration Day. Yesterday was a sad day for Ukraine and democracy. Trump is likely to hand a victory to Russia.
I will also hope that Trump is not psychologically troubled as he has appeared on the campaign trail. I hope he remains healthy. The only thing worse than Trump in the White House is J.D. Vance.
The Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:7 said, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” I fear that America is about to reap what was sowed in the 2024 election. May God help us.
Let me close on a positive note: Angela Alsobrooks has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Congratulations, Senator-Elect.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.
Patty Heaps says
I hope you have a long rest planned. Trump’s voters Weren’t naive and lazy- your candidate was. Her answer of “Trump” to every question didn’t work. Her endorsements by the likes of Cardi B, Lizzo And Beyonce were meaningless. And to openly admit that “nothing comes to mind” when asked if there Were things she would have done differently?
She was a candidate totally created by the media. Her “accomplishments” Were questionable, no one voted for her to be the nominee and she was considered one of the most useless VPs of all time until three months ago. The only thing that changed was the media pushing her nonstop. Talk about disinformation! It’s a new day in America!
Bill Barron says
Donald Trump won this election because Kamala Harris, her campaign staff, Democrats in general and the liberal media failed to understand or value the interests and mood of most of geographical America, the part that lies between the capital beltway and the western Rockies. Smug, arrogant views regarding (1)control of our southern border, (2)reckless passage of uber-inflationary spending bills with little oversight in execution, (3)attempts at anti-democratic Presidential fiats (e.g., student loan forgiveness) and (4)a generally dismissive attitude toward potential Trump voters (“garbage”, low info “yahoos”) and (5)high retail prices drove these results. And, so far, the lesson doesn’t seem to have sunken in; I heard a Texas congressman (D) on NPR today telling us that Harris (Dem) values “resonated with Americans”…….. Really?
The notion that Harris lost because of her gender, ethnicity or any other “noise” has little to do with the result. I believe that Nikki Haley would have run the score even higher had she somehow been the Republican nominee.
These observations notwithstanding, I expect the next four years to be be a rocky ride with our new CEO acting pretty much non-presidential, just like his first term; i.e., petty, vindictive, unable to convincingly articulate his own views and reliant on a fifth-grade vocabulary in public speeches. He’s a terrible orator; among modern presidents, JFK, Reagan and Obama were the best. For the Henny-Penny’s out there, the sky isn’t falling; we’ll get through this just like we got through his first term.
James Nick says
In trump’s mind, he is a veritable polymath without peer. A very stable genius of gargantuan proportions.
At one time or another he claimed to know more than anyone about campaign finance, TV ratings, ISIS, social media, courts and lawsuits (which, in this case, might actually be true), politicians, trade, renewable energy, debt, money, borders, construction, the economy, and drone technology. He even once famously said that he knew more than his generals.
But trump is a phony. He is a charlatan, a blowhard, and an empty suit. He is a snake charmer, pied piper, carnival barker, and cult leader all rolled into one. Think PT Barnum meets Jim Jones.
He ran a campaign most memorable for its uninhibited torrent of lies, hate, racism, misogyny, crudeness, and profanity. His cult ate it and the rest of people who voted for him didn’t find it disqualifying, at best and embraced it, at worst. Personally, I will continue to expect better from my elected representatives.
But I predict that those trump voters are going to come to see that the man they elected really can’t turn water into wine or raise the dead as he has repeatedly promised. And this time there will be no excuses. The Republicans have run the table (although the House is still uncertain at this time) and all those deep state RHINOs that sought to restrain trump from his worst impulses (aka, the adults in the room) have been cleared out. trump is now out on the high wire without a net. He owns it all going forward. Although he will try, he will have no one else to blame when things go south.
As the data show, the Biden administration was fatally burdened by the worldwide inflationary cycle that exploded after the sudden reopening of the global economy after covid that caused a myriad of supply chain problems. trump’s burden will be that he is inheriting an economy that is now banging on all fours. While not perfect or ideal (when is it ever?), the fact is that by almost any measure, the US economy is the envy of the world. (see https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/state-of-the-economy#:~:text=The%20economy%20is%20expanding%20at,make%20decisions%20on%20interest%20rates.)
If trump comes anywhere close to implementing some of his extreme agenda, like, say, mass deportation of a large proportion of our workforce in key sectors (construction, agriculture, hospitality, meat packing, etc), imposing massive tariffs, and tax cuts for the rich, most all economists predict that our deficits will explode, trade wars will ensue, inflation will return with a vengeance, and the economy will tank.
Unfortunately, there’s no metric that will reflect the social, cultural, environmental, and international upheaval that is waiting in the wings. That this country made a big mistake on November 5th is a vibe that will eventually dawn on people and hopefully lead to a course correction in the 2026 midterms.
I am of the mind that in 2020 people didn’t so much vote for Biden as they voted against a toxic, narcissistic, incompetent conman. Similarly, I believe that this time around trump’s winning margin wasn’t so much from a vote for trump as a vote against an unpopular, frail, Biden and, by extension, his surrogate.
Sour grapes? Unfortunately, we’re going to have to run the experiment to find out. We’ll see. Buckle your seatbelts.
Gren Whitman says
Trump’s return will usher in Mississippi-fication of Amerikkka.