Donald Trump has apparently been elected president of the United States with 276 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 218. Neither Trump nor Clinton appear to have gained a majority of the popular vote although Hillary Clinton may have a small plurality.
I was wrong. The editors of the Washington Post echo my thoughts here:
DONALD TRUMP was elected the 45th president of the United States on Tuesday. Those are words we hoped never to write. But Mr. Trump shocked the pollsters, riding a wave propelled in part by rural and Rust Belt voters who felt the political establishment had cast them aside. While Mr. Trump might not have done the same for his rival, Hillary Clinton, had she won, all Americans must accept the voters’ judgment and work for the best possible outcome for our country and the world.
President-elect Trump held the states carried by Mitt Romney in 2012 and added Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and probably Arizona, Michigan, and New Hampshire although those three states have still not been declared for him. That defies the predictions of pundits and pollsters.
In addition to Donald Trump’s victory Republicans have retained control of the House and the Senate.
I literally have no idea of what a President Trump will do. I think it’s almost completely unpredictable.
I believe that the greatest likelihood is that he will build his wall. It was his central campaign promise. I’m skeptical that it will have much effect but he’ll build it.
I doubt that he’ll be able to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act outright. It may be allowed to collapse of its own weight, it may struggle on, or it may be amended beyond recognition. I just don’t know.
I’m very interested in seeing what the detailed breakdown of the exit polls have to tell us. I suspect that it reflect something more complicated than the story that’s being told of a “whitelash against the first black president”.
We have no idea what he will really do. Predictions are a waste of time. That said, there is an optimistic possibility. I don’t think Trump has many core principles. Mostly just the need to be recognized as the biggest winner of all. While I think the GOP Congress has some principles, they will sacrifice almost any of them to stay in power. I think that means that while they would never compromise with Obama, they will compromise to give Trump cover.
Steve
That was shocking. Perhaps not so much that Trump won, but the evening TV coverage started with sage elder Republican statesman talking about repairing the party after Trump’s defeat. Then things seemed to be off in Florida where coverage had previously focused on huge Latino registration numbers. And then Fox called Wisconsin for Trump!?! And then Podesta tells Clinton people to go home, it will take a while to count the votes, and then Clinton concedes without any of the networks having shown 270 votes yet. I guess AP had called Pennyslvania for Trump, but if I were Clinton I would not be in a rush to assume anything yet, or at least based upon projection models built on incomplete returns. The polls clearly were built on assumptions built around a conventional Republican.
The “shy Trump voter” theory seems to have been vindicated.
Ok. I will make one prediction. Trump will replace the Lincoln bust with a bust of……….Trump!
Steve
It is real easy to figure out what President Trump will do. Write down what you think he will do, and if you have been wrong all along, you know he will do the opposite.
We know he does not “… need to be recognized as the biggest winner of all “, and he will not “… replace the Lincoln bust with a bust of……….Trump!”
What is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Wait until the minority voters figure out they no longer need to take the crap that has been shoveled down their throats. It is going to be funny to see white people calling black people racist because the black people will not follow the orders issued by the white elites.
Clinton ran on essentially nothing except being a woman. Trump, in my opinion, won a classic pocketbook election. Everything else is a sideshow. I thought the county by county analysis in the heartland said it all.