What's next after Trump win? Emboldened, he'll take charge in a Washington he changed
Now what?
With a stronger-than-ever electoral showing, Donald Trump is poised to take charge in a Washington he has changed.
He leads a united Republican Party, the so-called Never Trumpers in the GOP establishment vanquished. He faces disheartened Democrats who have only begun the recriminations over what went wrong. With bolstered control of the Senate and perhaps also the House, the GOP is positioned to push the aggressive agenda he outlined in a bruising campaign.
One more thing: Trump himself knows more about how things work and is less willing to heed those who urge caution than he was when he unexpectedly won his first term in the White House eight years ago.
Donald John Trump, 78, has triumphed over Democrat Kamala Harris in a historic political comeback ? prevailing despite two impeachments, two assassination attempts, a problematic debate, a criminal conviction and memories of the storming of the Capitol by his supporters four years ago. Not since Grover Cleveland in 1892 has a president come back from defeat to win a second term.
"We've achieved the most incredible political thing," he told exultant supporters gathered for election night in West Palm Beach, Florida. He promised to "fix everything."
This time, he not only carried the Electoral College but also the popular vote, the first Republican to do so in two decades. His victory was so decisive that there was no need to wait for days of counting ballots as in 2020.
Instead, most Americans woke up Wednesday morning to news that Trump had the White House in hand, and to speculation about what exactly he would do when he moves back in Jan. 20.
What will he do?
His supporters brag and his opponents fear that Trump will claim a mandate to do precisely what he said he would do.
That would include across-the-board tariffs on imported goods. Mass deportations of undocumented migrants. A rollback of federal regulations on energy and the environment. An extension of the massive tax cuts enacted in his first term. An "America First" foreign policy that could pressure Ukraine to make territorial concessions to end its defensive war with Russia.
He also vowed to seek "retribution" against his political foes and to pardon those convicted for their part in the Jan. 6 insurrection. He has made it clear he would end the federal prosecutions of himself ? indictments charging that he tried to overturn the 2020 election and mishandled some of the nation's most sensitive secrets.
The voices now likely to have his ear include controversial vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he praised at his victory celebration, and entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world's richest man. "A star is born: Elon," Trump declared to cheers.
The voices who will have more trouble getting his attention are likely to include the shrinking ranks of Republican moderates in Congress. With a Republican majority of at least 52 in the Senate, Trump could win confirmations and pass policy even if centrist senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine bolt.
Can disheartened Democrats rally?
For Democrats, the coalition that elected Barack Obama and Joe Biden has been shattered.
"We are going to have to sit down as a Democratic Party and look hard" at why voters didn't turn out for Harris and down-ballot Democrats, said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, an ally of Biden and co-chair of Harris' campaign. On CNN, he dodged a question about whether he and other Democrats had regrets about Biden's initial decision to seek a second term.
"Look, I think it's hard to look back and talk to what could-of or might-of or should-have been," he said ? words that were not a denial.
Trump already had reshaped the Republican Party, making it more populist, more male and more working-class.
With Tuesday's election, he also reshaped the Democratic Party. He eroded its core support among Latino and Black voters, especially men, and dismantled the "blue wall" of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that had once been a partisan bulwark.
In Edison Research exit polls, Trump carried a 54% majority of Hispanic men, a record for a Republican, and 37% of Hispanic women. Among Black voters, he won just 7% of Black women but 20% of Black men.
He defeated Vice President Harris among white voters 55%-43%.
The size and sweep of Trump's victory defied any easy or singular explanation, especially against an opponent who was credited with record fundraising and a generally sure-footed campaign.
Some critics said Harris should have picked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro instead of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, a choice that might have put the Keystone State in her corner. Others said she needed to do more to explain and distance herself from progressive positions she supported during her short-lived presidential bid in 2019. She faced hecklers, especially on college campuses, for the devastation among civilians in Gaza from Israeli attacks.
Most of all, though, voters said their top concern was the economy, expressing disapproval of the Biden administration's record on inflation and saying they had suffered its effect on their own families.
On the other hand ...
There's another election in two years.
In victory and defeat, the late Democratic national chair Robert Strauss would caution that in politics, things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem ? that the seeds of disaster or renewal are planted in the best and worst of times. Now, with their commanding position of power, Trump and his GOP troops are likely to be held accountable for good news and bad.
Midterm elections almost always deliver rebukes to the party in power as voters express unhappiness with promises not kept. In the past five midterm elections, for instance, the president's party has lost an average of 31 House seats.
Which would, of course, switch power there again.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump won. Now what? He'll take charge in a changed Washington