New York, Nov 6: Donald John Trump made a phenomenal comeback on Wednesday beating back a conviction, three indictments, two assassination attempts, two impeachments, and continuous assault by most of the mainstream media to reclaim the White House. “We made history”, declared Trump who will become the 47th president of the United States.
He won 277 electoral college seats – a clear majority in the 538-member body – and 51 per cent of the popular votes counted as of 5:30 am (4 pm in India), setting him on a clear path to the presidency that he lost in 2020. “This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again,” he said at his victory celebration in Florida as his supporters shouted, “USA, USA”.
At 78, he will be the oldest president to set foot in the White House. He is also the second president to be elected after being defeated; the last one was Grover Cleveland who won his second term in 1893. Trump’s victory was powered by economic issues, the popular disquiet over the inflation that has sent prices of food soaring by about 25 per cent now compared to when he was defeated in 2020.
The Republicans recaptured the Senate, assured of at least 51 seats in the 100-member body. The control of the House of Representatives hung in the balance, even though Republicans had the edge with 200 seats to Democrats’ 175. Although it will take days or weeks for states to announce the official results as they will have to complete formalities and the counting, by tradition the media declared him the winner based on the analysis of the counting data pouring.
The election was a shocking disappointment for Kamala Harris who stepped in to carry the Democratic Party torch three months ago after President Joe Biden dropped out as questions arose over his mental and physical capabilities. Since the August Democratic National Convention which nominated her unopposed, Harris scrambled to forge a distinct identity but was drowned by weaknesses of the Biden administration which projected her as a partner.
When Harris leaves office in January, there would still be a person of Indian origin in 1 Observatory Circle, the US Vice President’s official residence – Usha Vance, the wife of JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. The declaration of Trump’s victory came swiftly confounding the pollsters and the analysts who predicted a tight race that would have taken a lot longer – days or weeks – to resolve. The result was a repudiation of the Democrat’s identity politics that stereotypes people and puts them into monolithic groups.
Erosion of support among Latinos contributed to Harris’s defeat as they appeared to not buy into her arguments that Trump’s opposition to illegal migration translated to racism against Latino citizens. Another group that exit polls showed contributed to the Democrat’s defeat was young voters, especially men. Trump also made headway among African Americans.
Harris made abortion rights a central point of her campaign hoping to win women’s support. But it appears that many women still voted for Trump, even in some of the states where abortion rights referendums carried. It was also a rejection of celebrities like Taylor Swift or Beyonce, and the mainstream media who went all in for Harris and ceaselessly attacked Trump.
The liberal elite who seem to set the Democrats’ agenda had advocated policies like defunding police, open borders and having men who are transgenders use girls’ bathrooms and participate in women’s sports.
Harris, who had once subscribed to these ideas, tried to distance herself from the past political persona. Trump will view the victory as a vindication of his claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that he had defeated Biden. His election will mean the end of the two federal cases over alleged mishandling of secret documents and election obstruction.
In New York, he was convicted of manipulating business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star who claimed to have had a tryst with him. He is due to be sentenced later this month – and is unlikely to get a prison term. The case against him over the alleged 2020 election interference in George is snagged by alleged misconduct by the prosecutor.
IANS