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In this file photo, US President Donald Trump raises his fist after speaking during Election Night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, early November 4, 2020. | Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP.
New York, USA – The US presidential election is still up in the air, but one thing is certain: The movement created by Donald Trump is alive and well, and more robust than experts expected.
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, Trumpism seems ready to live.
Republican political savvy Sophia A. Nelson quickly summed it up: “The Trump movement is real. And it’s here to stay. “
Despite being repeatedly, and wrongly, described as just older, white, and rural, Trump’s base will help garner the third-highest vote total in American political history, behind only Joe Biden and Barack Obama in 2008.
Hispanic voters, who are often expected to lean to the left, turned to Trump this time: His turnout in Florida helped him easily defeat Biden at the Sunshine State in Tuesday’s toughest election.
“Before the election, a lot of experts talked about how Trump was not attracting new voters to his field,” said Abraham Gutman, who sits on the editorial board of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But at the very least, he will have won about five million more votes this time than he did in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.
Regardless of the end result, in statewide races for voters or on the fringes of the popular vote, the media needs a serious autopsy to explore how, despite so much ink spilled on Trump’s voters, the movement’s growth story Trump was totally lost, ”Gutman said.
Trump organized dozens of campaign rallies in the run-up to Tuesday’s showdown at the polls with the former Democratic vice president. He was regularly greeted by sizable crowds.
Truck parades for the Republican incumbent went through city after American city, as did boat processions in riverside communities.
All were evidence of a broad base of support.
“His followers love him. They love him for the fact that he keeps America first and Americans first, ”Jim Worthington, founder of People4Trump, told AFP in a telephone interview.
“They realize that you are fighting for them. We are expanding our coalition, ”added Worthington, owner of two gyms.
– ‘True darling’ –
Trump’s controversial handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 233,000 Americans, his harsh immigration policies and his brash style of speaking have not deterred his fans.
The real estate mogul turned world leader remains one of the most popular Republicans of recent times, since Ronald Reagan.
His supporters “have a real affection for this guy despite all his flaws or maybe because of his flaws,” said John Feehery, a lobbyist for EFB Advocacy who has worked with several Republican lawmakers.
That is a strange thing. I think it’s partly because it’s so authentic. (…) He says what he has in mind. And people like to see what he has in mind. “
It also strikes a chord with voters who have a “desire for nationalism,” Feehery said.
“If Trump hadn’t existed, someone would have had to invent him.”
– Another Trump race in 2024? –
If Trump finally wins the election, his future and political legacy will not be clear for a few years.
If he loses, “I don’t think the movement will go away,” Worthington said. “I think everyone regroups. He will decide which path we would take for all of us and I think we would push forward together. “
As for his overall influence in the Republican Party, which has massively joined him in the past four years, many think that a loss in 2020 probably wouldn’t negatively affect him.
Even with a narrow defeat in the White House, Republicans are on track to maintain their majority in the Senate and did not lose spectacularly in the House of Representatives.
“Things worked out well for a party that he led and presumably it will continue to influence the direction things are going once he’s not on TV as often,” said Daniel Schlozman, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. .
“These are the circumstances in which the parties are more likely to stay the course than to say, ‘We have to do something very, very different.’
For David Hopkins, associate professor of political science at Boston College, Trump “has had and will continue to have a great influence on the Republican Party” for at least the next four years, even if he loses.
Feehery said that if Trump loses this time, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran again.”
Worthington said he believed the billionaire businessman would have “a lot of support” if he ran again in four years.
When asked about a possible new wave of Trump politicians, Worthington said he viewed daughter Ivanka, not eldest son Don Jr, as the “heir apparent.”
“She is a very impressive person,” he said, noting that he worked with her on the President’s Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Council.
But Hopkins cautioned: “Clearly part of Trump’s appeal is his own personality, which he may not be able to transfer to other figures once he himself has left the scene.”
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