At noon on Monday, something extraordinary will happen. Donald Trump will once again take office as president of the United States. It is a political comeback unrivaled in our nation’s history.
There will be balls and galas and fireworks galore. All of the traditional ephemera of power, all of the wealthy people strutting around in their tuxedos taking selfies. This is how the right set always congratulate themselves.
But they didn’t win this election. The hard-working people of America did.
Trump is not resuming residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because billionaires wanted it. Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley socialites didn’t make this happen. Trump won because Americans with thankless jobs, like nurses, cops, plumbers, bus drivers and waitresses made it so.
I know this because I spent the entire election traveling the country talking to them. I knew Trump would win because they wanted it. Demanded it.
These were everyday working people who told me that prices were too high, and the border is a national security threat. As one woman in Bedford, Pennsylvania, asked me, ‘How do I know we won’t be the next Springfield, Ohio,’ where migrants have overrun the community?
In Springfield, where I traveled to hear the real story, I was told that their community was being destroyed, that young people couldn’t rent a house near their parents, because they were going three to a room to Haitian migrants.
In Staunton, Virginia, I met business owners, most of them self-described Democrats who were really struggling. Some of them were ready to give Trump a shot, not because they liked him, but because they kind of trusted him.
In San Francisco, I met Democrats near the end of their rope, so tired of mismanagement they were willing to try anything.
In Chicago, the union guys I talked to didn’t love Trump, but were so terrified of Kamala Harris’ incompetence and a Democratic Party that gave them more promises than results that they went for the Donald.
You can see the pattern. Trump’s victory is not some great mystery, it was the natural conclusion of a Biden presidency that consistently put the American people and their interests last.
Scranton Joe’s presidency was – and thankfully we can now say ‘was’ – a disaster on almost every front. His hapless diplomatic corps stoked war across the globe, his economic team made basic groceries too expensive, and his Department of Justice went to war with Christianity.
On all of these fronts, Trump will be an improvement. That’s why he was elected.
But as the Trump administration, with its flashy meme coins and elegant balls, takes power, a word of caution is in order. The people I met on the road across America aren’t big fans of rich folks in fancy dress promising to control our lives.
The truck drivers elected Donald Trump, the movers and construction workers elected him. They won’t be at the galas, they won’t get to hobnob with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who will sit at a dais at Trump’s beck and call.
And make no mistake, both those billionaires have bent the knee in a way no everyday worker in Brooklyn would, because the hardworking American never has to. They just show up at work, and then they, and only they, decide who wins elections.
Trump has a generational opportunity to make this country better for working men and women. I don’t think anybody doubts he wants that, or will fight for it, and that’s cause for optimism.
But the incoming Trump administration, once the festivities and hollow compliments from think tank millionaires have passed, better remember who really put them in power and why.
There’s real hope, there really is, and there is a sense that this administration can put this country on a better foot. Polluting shows 60 percent of Americans are optimistic about the incoming administration. That is great news.