Trump Is Riding a Populist Wave to a New Golden Age

It was a landslide, and here’s what the pollsters missed.

AP/Evan Vucci
President Trump greets Senator Vance at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, November 6, 2024, at West Palm Beach, Florida. AP/Evan Vucci

Donald Trump is riding a populist revolt to a new Golden Age. He won a landslide victory Tuesday.

He swept all of the swing states.

He broke down the so-called “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

He had good coattails bringing in five new Republican senators.

The House will remain in Republican hands.

He won the popular vote 51 perceny to 47 percent, roughly a margin of 5 million votes.

It was a historic victory somewhat similar to President Reagan in 1980.

Indeed 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.

And sure enough, virtually none of them did.

Here’s what they missed: Trump has put together and expanded a coalition of populist working folks and middle Americans, that includes the young, latinos, Blacks, whites, Asians, women (4 points better than 2020), and unions.

He founded this coalition back in 2015-2016 and it ebbed and flowed over the years.

The key point in this election, though, 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. People with no college degree, 8 points. Incomes under $50,000, 10 points; Catholics, 8 points.

Most pollsters never understood the new Trump coalition in the first place, and they surely didn’t understand how much he was expanding it.

These are folks who felt left out and abandoned by the big shots at 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 were fed up with high prices, falling real wages, an affordability crisis, open borders, the woke culture, transgenderism, DEI, extreme 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 people.

Instead they called them deplorables, garbage, racist, sexist. Calling Trump a fascist, a Nazi, a threat to democracy.

But nobody took the Kamala Harris Democrats seriously.

Trump’s populist coalition rejected big government socialism and the 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 this. As did campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.

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 barber shops. Rallies at the Bronx. And bodegas at Harlem.

And it worked. It was a smashing political and electoral victory.

And Tuesday night in his victory speech he told supporters that success would unify the country.

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 Trump an enormous mandate for change.

I believe he will use it to restore normalcy, peace, and prosperity.

That’s his ticket to greatness.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.


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