LARRY KUDLOW: Trump has given us the greatest political comeback in American history
Donald Trump is riding a populist revolt to a new golden age. That's the subject of the riff. Donald Trump won a landslide victory yesterday. He swept all the swing states. He broke down the so-called blue wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He had good coattails, bringing five new Republican senators in. The House is going to remain in Republican hands. Mr. Trump won the popular vote 51-47, roughly a margin of 5 million votes. It was a historic victory, somewhat similar to Ronald Reagan back in 1980.
Indeed, Mr. Trump has given us the greatest political comeback in American history. You may recall earlier this week I made the case that the pollsters did not understand the populist surprise that was coming on Election Day. Sure enough, virtually none of them did. Here's what they missed. Mr. Trump has put together an expanded populist working folks and middle American coalition that includes young Latinos, Blacks, Whites, Asians, women. Trump is four points better with women and unions. He founded this coalition back in 2015-2016, and it has ebbed and flowed over the years, but the key point in this election is that he expanded the coalition.
He wasn't just speaking to the base, he was expanding the base. Young voters had a 19 point shift to Trump. Black men, 12 points. Hispanic men, 16 points. No college degrees, 8 points. Incomes under $50,000, 10 points. Catholics, 8 points higher. Most pollsters never understood the new Trump coalition in the first place, and they surely did not understand how much he was expanding it.
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These are folks who felt left out and abandoned by the big shots in New York and Washington, DC and California. Three quarters of the voters said Biden-Harris was piloting the country in the wrong direction. These folks are fed up with high prices, falling real wages, an affordability crisis, open borders, crime, the woke culture, transgenderism, DEI, extremist climate policies, and seemingly endless wars in Europe and the Middle East.
This was the heart of the Trump populist coalition. Democrats were in complete denial. They never understood it. They never listened to these folks. Instead, they called them names – "deplorables, garbage, racist, sexist." They called Trump a "fascist, a Nazi, a threat to democracy," but nobody took the Kamala Democrats seriously.
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Trump's populist coalition rejected big government socialism and left-wing wokeism. Democratic pollster Mark Penn was one of the few who seemed to understand Trump's worker coalition. Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio surely understood it as that campaign manager Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita saved it. This was their strategy – expand the populist base, especially young people and minorities. This is what Mr. Trump was doing at all those rallies in the garbage truck, adding salt to the fries at McDonald's, speaking to Catholic and other religious groups at the Al Smith Dinner in New York, going to barbershops, rallies in the Bronx, bodegas in Harlem, the Madison Square Garden rally. It worked.
It was a smashing political and electoral victory. Last night in his victory speech, he told supporters that success would unify the country. He said "promises made, promises kept." He intends to heal the country. He told them, "God spared my life to save the country and restore America to greatness." He speaks of a golden age for America. The voters have given Mr. Trump an enormous mandate for change, and I believe he will use it to restore normalcy, peace and prosperity. That's his ticket to greatness and that's terrific.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Nov. 6, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."