One of the biggest political comebacks in American President History was on the 6th November 2024 when former Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 5th November 2024 elections by scoring 292 Electoral College and Popular vote of 71 million- at the time of writing and expected to win 312 Electoral College once the results of three swing states declared where Trump is ahead of Harris. The second coming and historic victory of Trump reminded the winning of Andrew Jackson in 1828 and Nixon’s historical comeback of 1968 when all political pundits thought differently.
Another astonishing fact about Trump’s second homecoming to the White House is that he is the first person to face charges of felonies and the second American President who serves White House twice for non-consecutive term. This shows his resilience, determination, and resistance despite all the odds against him. Finally, he was able to turn America “Red” again with the popular vote. Let’s analyze how and why Trump was able to beat Democratic Candidate Kamala Harris.
Economy and Inflation
One of the top issues for the American people during the whole election session was the state of the economy and inflation, and various exit polls and surveys indicated that most voters viewed that Trump would handle and manage the economy better than Harris and would be able to bring down the inflation, which is soaring in the USA since the Post Covid-19 era. The previous record of Trump showed that he is a big proponent of placing high tariffs on imports, especially on Chinese imports, and dumped millions of dollars for creating jobs at home.
Immigration and Border Security
The second top issue that remained for American voters was immigration and border security where most mainland American voters and states favored that Trump would seal the border and do better at stopping illegal immigration from Mexico borders, where tens of thousands of illegal immigrants entered into the USA and applied for asylum. Many Americans and Trump supporters believed that these illegal immigrants were doing heinous crimes and taking away jobs of white Americans, and Trump played over it; unlike Harris who was under Vice Presidency, Biden and Harris unable to resolve immigration and border security issues.
White Populism
Despite increasing ethnic diversification of the USA, the USA is still largely is White Country, where White constitutes almost 70pc of the population. The core of Trump’s popularity and support comes from the mainland American population who do not live on either the East Coast or West Coast, where most of the finance, Tech Companies, Universities and Liberal values exist. And unsurprisingly, trump was able to reach out and galvanize this white core American base population to vote for him.
Conservatism and Family Values
Most republican voters and the heartland of America viewed that the Democratic Party has been increasing “Too Left”, especially on the issue of Abortion and LGBTQ issues. Although America is a liberal country, at heart it is a very religious and Christian Nation where many People value their family and traditional values. And Trump, being a supporter of conservatism, was able to pull out the votes of Conservative Americans.
Agenda of Stopping Wars
Since the Presidency of Biden, America has been at war aboard. At first, the USA was directly involved in supporting Ukraine in its war effort against Russia which started the full invasion of Ukraine on Feb 2024 on the pretext of Eastward Expansion of NATO. Under Biden, Ukraine received billions of dollars in military and economic aid for fighting Russia, which caused high inflation on the American home front. And since the outbreak of the October 2023 Gaza war USA remained complicit in the genocidal campaign of Israel against Palestinians by providing economic, military, political and diplomatic support. Most Americans wanted to stop these abroad wars; however, Harris was unable to offer any provision for stopping these wars. Contrarily, Trump has vowed to end these bloody and fruitless wars abroad and wanted peace with Russia to end the Ukraine war and a ceasefire truce in Gaza- these claims attracted a lot of voters in America, including many Arab and other Muslim voters.
Harris came very late in the Election Session.
Harris only came to the top position of Democratic Candidate once the pressure was mounting on Biden to renounce the race due to their poor performance at the American debate with Trump. Many experts viewed that the late coming of Harris wouldn’t be able to give him enough time to galvanize the democratic base, especially liberal educated American voters excluding the east coast and west coast.
Harris takes “Too Left”
Harris and her running mate Tim Walz remained “Too Left” on many issues, especially on abortion, LGBTQ and women’s rights. Although, Harris was able to attract a significant number of Women, Black and Educated American voters, yet underplayed the role of strong traditional and family values of mainland America, where most of the swing states occurred.
It is X (Twitter) Factor and Social Media Stupid!
While most of the liberal media of America remained hostile towards him, Trump effectively used social media to galvanize its base and support throughout the whole year. And don’t forget to mention the X factor and Elon Musk’s role in keeping the trajectory of Trump high in Election weeks. Elon Musk repeatedly called Trump’s victory indispensable for the survival of America and extended his endorsement and money towards Trump’s campaign. Trump, after winning the White House, called Elon a “Star is born” and assigned him an important portfolio in the Trump Presidency. Therefore, one can easily conclude that “Social Media is the Real King Maker” not traditional TV channels, reporters and analysts who remained unnoticed the ripple effects of social media and its real-time influence on thinking patterns of politics. So, don’t underestimate the power and optics of Social Media.
Victim Card
Many political pundits opined that Trump played the victim card very smartly before his base and the American Public to get extra support in the election. One observer analyst that spanning the narrative of destroying the Deep State and American Establishment, he was able to attract several American voters who felt alienated and sidelined in the American system. Furthermore, winning of White House for the second time, he effectively set aside his felony charges and narrative of attacking Capitol Hills on 6th January 2021.
Concluding Marks
Second homecoming to the White House against all the odds in the case of opposition from the American Establishment, Democratic Party, Liberal Media, and Big Tech, the narrative of Capitol Hills attacks, Murder attacks and heinous crimes nothing less than a miracle in the political history of America. Now what Trump has needed is to heal the nation, set aside the divisive politics, make reconciliation with political opponents and make peace broad, especially in Ukraine and Gaza. Trump’s victory and second Presidency will greatly affect American politics, economy and society while ripple effects will be witnessed with relations with China, Russia, NATO, the Middle East region, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region; Yes! We are living in Trumpism World!