Now that we’ve had a bit of time to reflect, it’s worth thinking about why Trump won. At the end of the day, I think it’s pretty simple. Trump won because of the fundamentals. We are at the tail end of a failed presidency where inflation has eaten away the quality of life of Americans, the pressures put on society by the open border (crime, wage pressure, housing, social safety net, schools, etc.) are real, and echos of totalitarianism felt during and since the pandemic scare people. Americans want change. Biden and Harris were not going to offer that change.

Trump was a flawed candidate for many reasons. He may have won despite that. Maybe. Or he may have won because of that. While flawed, he is unquestionably a tough change agent who has the capacity to effect meaningful change in the way our federal government operates. He is not about incremental change this time. And that’s what people want. We’ll never know if DeSantis or Abbot or someone would have won by a larger margin. What we do know is that Trump DID win. And he won because more Americans want him in the White House than those who didn’t. The same Americans who gave Obama two terms and Biden one term are the same ones who elected Trump. They are not bigoted, stupid, crazy, sexist, or fooled. They know who Trump is. They want change from the misery of the Biden years and Trump is the most likely instrument of that change. It’s as simple as that.