Make room, Grover Cleveland: Donald Trump on Tuesday became the second guy to win a second, non-consecutive four years in the White House — and with the most multiracial coalition the GOP’s seen in decades, maybe ever.
Coupled with Republicans winning clear control of the Senate, and a strong chance to keep their narrow House majority, Trump has great prospects to make good on his vow to usher in a new “golden age.”
“My message to Americans tonight is simple: We do not have to live this way. We do not have to settle for weakness, incompetence, decline and decay,” he said Monday.
“With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces — and lead America, and indeed the world, to new heights of glory.”
Doing it will be a lot tougher than saying it, but he’s in far better shape to move decisively and wisely than after his surprising 2016 victory.
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With the benefits of experience, he should assemble a far stronger White House team, and more solid Cabinet; it’ll be far harder for “deep state” types to blindside him.
Yes, Democrats and much of the media will re-enter “resistance” mode — but this solid victory guarantees their obstructionism will get far less traction.
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Nothing like the phony Russiagate scandal is going to kneecap him this time around. His foes only have the prosecutions to fall back on.
But the federal cases will at worst freeze once he’s sworn in, and will be impossible to try before then. The Georgia case was already on its last legs and seems sure to die.
In New York, Judge Juan Merchan would be insane to try for any jail time now, and the appellate courts have all the more reason to toss the case completely: It’d be right by the law, and good for the state to not risk a vendetta with the next president.
Meanwhile, Trump has a professional team around him now, allowing him to take decisive, effective executive action on Day 1: getting control of the border, unleashing America’s energy sector, upending Biden regulations that stifle the US economy.
And, yes, starting to put out the fires across the globe.
On that front, recall his words that final campaign day: “We’ll help the world — a lot of people think we’re isolationists, we’re not.”
Israel can breathe a huge sigh of relief: Washington will now have its back as it confronts Iran and its proxies — and renewed sanctions will rapidly start slamming Tehran’s income.
No more cutoffs of the weapons Jerusalem needs.
As for Ukraine: Trump’s said he wants a cease-fire, but he also won’t have Joe Biden’s qualms about “escalating” the war. Vladimir Putin is on notice, it’s time to cut a deal that guarantees Kyiv’s independence, permanently — and if he wants to get now-occupied Russian territory back, he’ll have to move back from the Ukrainian territory he’s squatting on.
At home, Trump (with help from the Democrats’ turn to the far left) has also created a new winning Republican coalition, with Latino voters breaking decisively to the GOP and blacks increasingly down on the Dems.
Working-class voters of all races now lean Republican, and if Trump delivers for them in his second term as he did in his first, it’s a whole new ballgame for elections to come.
As John Podhoretz notes, this is an incredible personal achievement for Trump — after two impeachments, multiple prosecutions including absurd judgments (still on appeal) in kangaroo New York courts, relentless media hostility, two assassination attempts and a late switch of Democratic nominee.
He powered through to victory, and that’s another huge edge in pursuing his agenda at home and abroad: Never count this guy out.
