[ad_1]
Donald Trump, who defied political gravity with his extraordinary rise from reality star and businessman to the presidency, has returned to Earth.
In the end, his flurry of raucous demonstrations, an unprecedented turnout operation, and sheer force of will failed to overcome the reality of his enduring unpopularity and a raging pandemic that has killed more than 236,000 people in the United States and left them jobless. to millions.
Evan Vucci / AP
There is little chance that the defeated President of the United States, Donald Trump, will walk silently into the night.
Yet Trump’s scathing policy – his taunts on Twitter, his vengeful drive to punish enemies, his approach to the independent world – left its mark on the confines of government and beyond. And his better-than-expected electoral performance against Democrat Joe Biden suggests that his impact is likely to resonate for generations in politics, government, and politics, even in defeat.
It remains to be seen what Trump intends to do after his term ends on January 20. Retired to the golf course? Launch your own television network? Laying the foundations to run again? And how fiercely will he try to contest his fate?
READ MORE:
* Election in the United States: Trump’s power on Twitter, Facebook will survive his presidency
* Election in the United States: Kamala Harris becomes the first black woman, vice president-elect of South Asia
* Election in the United States: Joe Biden elected president of the United States, overthrowing Donald Trump
* US Election Live: Trump, the Great Divider, is Conquered – Biden Wins the White House
* Election in the United States: Trump faces a difficult road to get the Supreme Court to intervene
“I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics. It would definitely put him on the short list of people who are likely to run in 2024, ”said former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in an online interview with the Institute of International and European Affairs. “He does not like to lose”.
Trump retains the megaphone of his Twitter account, a powerful Fox News platform, and the unwavering backing of his loyal base of supporters, who may never accept defeat after spending months insisting there was no way he could lose. legitimately and even falsely claim. premature victory.
On Saturday, Trump refused to give in to President-elect Biden, instead promising unspecified legal challenges to try to overturn the outcome of the race.
Until a successor emerges to lead the Republicans, probably not until the resolution of the Republican primaries in 2024, Trump remains the de facto leader of a party that has reshaped in his image.
“Even in defeat, Donald Trump exceeded expectations and helped other Republicans do the same,” said Republican consultant Michael Steel, who has worked on Capitol Hill and campaigning. “It will continue to be a powerful force within the party.”
Matt York / AP
A Donald Trump supporter stands in front of a vote counting office in Phoenix, Arizona.
Still, Trump’s defeat is likely to cause a reckoning of how much Trumpism the party should embrace in the future, especially since Republicans could retain control of the Senate and win additional House seats.
If Biden had won in a blowout, that would have put “the wind in the back of many Republicans who said that character counts and that the Republican Party should never put their faith in someone who pushed the limits like Donald Trump,” said the former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who served under former President George W. Bush.
But because it was closer, he predicted that the party would likely “continue to be plagued by a divide between insiders and outsiders, between the establishment and Trump supporters who blame the establishment. And the role of the future former president will be a A big question mark because if you decide to stay active, despite the near loss, you are still powerful and effective, especially for Republicans. “
Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether Trump will accept the election results in the next few days or continue to challenge them while spending the next three months as a boorish president.
Those who know him well say there is little chance that he will wander into the night in silence.
“When Donald Trump loses, there will never be a peaceful transition to power,” said Michael Cohen, the lawyer and repairman turned critic of Trump. He predicted that Trump would do everything in his power to claim that Democrats or other forces “stole” his election, just as Trump was trying to sow discord while the votes were being counted.
Cohen said Trump was probably also aware that after losing the presidency, he could “get a plethora of lawsuits, both federal and state.” Trump is already facing lawsuits charging him with sexual assault and defamation, and the New York attorney general is investigating the finances of his Trump Organization.
Barbara Res, a longtime Trump associate who recently wrote a book about her experience working with him, speculated that the president might leave the county before Biden’s inauguration and perhaps pursue his own media empire.
“He could wear whatever he wanted. I could say what I want. It’s almost like Twitter explodes into everything else, ”he said.
As for the future of Republicans, Steel said the party will likely seek leaders who combine elements of Trump’s populist agenda with policies that appeal to a broader swath of the electorate.
“The challenge will be to identify the popular, enduring and practical parts of its agenda and marry them with policies and arguments that appeal to the broader electorate that the party will need to win domestically in the future,” he said.
Under Trump, the Republican Party fully embraced the populist wave set in motion by the Tea Party rebels in previous years, shifting its focus from free trade and trickle-down economics to trade wars and an isolationist foreign policy.
His rise opened a new path to the presidency, driven more by force of personality than politics, which was echoed even as he lost the Electoral College vote. His nativist message and the revival of the “culture wars” demonstrated the power of the politics of division and accelerated a generational political realignment.
While he deepened his reach with working-class and rural white voters with his economic and racial grievances, he also turned off college-educated voters in the cities and suburbs with his sometimes rude rhetoric and endless tweets.
Still, many Republicans believed he would have won re-election had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic and the widespread belief among voters that he mishandled it.
Some top Republican leaders believe that while so-called “Never Trumpeters” may celebrate the president’s defeat, Republicans are unlikely to be able to completely repudiate him, as his stances on trade, immigration and foreign policy have resonated with voters. and how close it came to getting a second victory.
It’s also unclear whether those who have flocked to the party because of Trump will remain engaged once he is no longer on the list.
The race for the 2024 Republican nomination has already quietly started behind the scenes. A wide range of candidates are testing the waters, from moderates like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, to rioters like Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton to former Trump officials like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has become a favorite of the president’s loyal supporters in the election campaign, which means that Trump’s name could endure.
Fleischer said the party would likely seek out someone with the frank and direct voice of an outsider who would at the same time refrain from going “so far that your tweets would alienate the people who want to be for you.”
Many of Trump’s supporters see his influence continue.
“We started something that will go on for generations,” said 56-year-old Chris Haluck, watching a crowd of thousands at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania he attended with his 17-year-old daughter.
In fact, while Trump has traveled the country, his campaign has inspired a new generation of supporters who have been hosting their own events outside of the campaign infrastructure.
These include “Loud Majority Long Island,” which has drawn thousands to car shows in New York, a state that is overwhelmingly Democratic.
Matt Vereline, who joined other members of the group in a recent Trump rally, said that even if Trump loses, the group intends to continue its efforts, with a focus on local politicians, including the mayor of the city of New York Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“We want to expel Cuomo, of course,” he said. “And we want to expel De Blasio. We are going to try to organize ourselves. “
