Donald Trump’s America

my name is Ava I live in Atlanta Georgia. I am 33 years. old and I am so relieved Daddy's home. baby welcome back Donald J. Trump the results of the election are. amazing and just and the real true voice. of the people.

I'm excited jubilant I feel a sense of. pride in my country it just feels like a. a a heavy burden has been lifted off of. me last night it was like finally. earning a certain type of respect it was. Redemption uh Wars are going to finally. end and America will be back on the. hands of Americans again I feel like God. answered our prayers I feel like God's. giving us another chance.

my name's Meredith Turner. um I live in. Virginia and I'm heartbroken and I'm. terrified I'm feeling more than just sad. I'm scared I'm worried for my patients. who might not be able to be covered. under the Affordable Care Act I'm so.

surprised I really thought that we were. ready to move on from the sky I feel. like I'm out of touch with America I. guess the opposite is true more people. love him than ever I just feel like I. don't know this country anymore. [Music].

from The New York Times I'm Michael. babbaro this is the. daily on Wednesday Americans began to. absorb celebrate and mourn the reality. of a second Trump presidency and the. sheer scale of his victory over kamla. Harris today my colleagues need con and. Peter Baker on the voting blocks that. Trump conquered and the legac y he has.

redefined it's Thursday November. 7th Nate welcome back to the same Studio. where we spoke it feels like just a few. hours ago it really doesn't feel like. it's been long at all no and I think the. lack of sleep confuses the chronology. even more I want to talk to you about. what we didn't get around to talking.

about in our conversation in the we. hours of Wednesday morning the one I. walked out of the one you walked out of. because you needed to call Pennsylvania. we just didn't have a lot of granular. data that took us under the hood of. Trump's Victory so that's what we want. to do with you now and understand really. The Sweep of his victory in the smallest. possible details so where do you want to. start well Donald Trump made large gains. in places all over the country he made.

large gains with many in fact most. demographic groups H one example is the. Latino vote overall the exit poll found. that Harris only won the Hispanic vote. 52 to 46 that is the best result for a. Republicans since we have been asking. about hispanic ethnicity in exit pole. data there's a county in South Texas. called star County it's almost entirely. Latino where Trump won by more than 15. points in a place that Obama was winning.

80% of the vote just a few years ago and. where Democrats have won an every. election since the 19th century wow as. long as we have election results and. suddenly Trump not only bests kamla. Harris but by 15 points by a lot wow. Miami dat County Trump won by 11 that's. a place where Hillary won by 30 just a. few years ago that's extraordinary it's. a huge shift Hillary won by 30 Trump. wins by 11 and I'm not so good at math. but that's a 40 Point swing you've got. it it's a huge swing it's the sort of.

swing that in a polarized country you. might think isn't possible and yet it. happens so Latino voters show up for. Trump in a huge and I think we are safe. in saying historic way for Republican. yes and it's part of why Trump did so. well in Texas and Florida and the next. group I think we should talk about might. be um Muslim or Arab American voters. Dearborn Michigan a place where Arab. Americans represent a larger share of. the population anywhere in the country.

Donald Trump won it 42 to 36 with Jill. Stein getting 18 Joe Biden won de born. 69 to 30 wow four years ago so we can do. our quick math of 39 plus 6 that's a 45. Point swing in Dearborn in which Donald. Trump gains among Arab American Muslim. American voters we have to suspect. because of the protest vote against the. sitting vice president for the Biden. administration's policy towards.

Palestinians that's exactly right to me. maybe the next most surprising area of. strength is just in general in the blue. States When Donald Trump won in 2016. there was something fundamentally narrow. about it it was just concentrated among. white working class voters in the. Midwest and if you were in a highly. educated metropolitan area you might. have thought Hillary Clinton was going. to win decisively right and you were. surprised in election night this time. Trump made big gains in blue America H.

including where we are right now in New. York City and in New York state where. right now conell Harris is only winning. by 12 points you say only 12 points. what's the one by 23 huh just over the. river in New Jersey right now commis is. only up by four closer than Arizona and. Nevada if we were redrawing the. Battleground map New Jersey has as good. of a case as some of the states that the. cans have been visting over and over. again the margin right now is eight. points in Illinois and she's only up by.

177 points right now in her own home. state in California Donald Trump made. big gains in the sort of places that. seem to be the heart of the opposition. to him four and eight years ago so. overall what seem to be the kinds of. gains that rewrite a party's and a. candidates relationship with the. electorate with entire ethnic groups and. entire regions of the country yes but. you know I have to say that I am more. struck by the Breet.

of Donald Trump's gains than I am by any. narrow breakthroughs that he made among. particular demographic Rubes Donald. Trump gained almost everywhere if you go. to the New York Times results page we. have this map that shows where places. shifted from 2020 right a series of red. arrow red arrows if it's towards Trump. blue arrows if it's towards Harris. everywhere's red I mean there are a. handful of exceptions especially in like. the sparsely populated West but.

this is an election where Donald Trump. made inroads among almost every group. and in almost every County and almost. every region and that tells me that. Donald Trump was propelled by something. that's equally broad something that cut. through across demographic lines that. this wasn't a story fundamentally about. narrow demographic changes or groups but. instead something you I think that to. explain what happened you need something. that explains all of these shifts and I. think it's harder to do that if you.

focus your explanation on well what. caused the Hispanic vote to shift or. what caused uh New Jersey to shift. there's something that was doing it. everywhere a grander theory a grander. theory and Theory resonated somewhat. differently from different groups but a. lot of it has to be coming from the same. thing for the same pattern to emerge. more or less everywhere okay so now that. you've brought us to this stage please. lift the curtain give us the grand. Theory it's not too Grand I think it's. pretty simple that this comes down to. some of the most basic fundamental.

things about how elections work voters. wanted change they were deeply. dissatisfied with the status quo they. were deeply dissatisfied with the. president and the economy and they were. not willing to send the vice president. back into the White House as a result. and just to put a fine point on it no. party has ever retained the White House. when so many voters disapproved the. president and think the country is. heading in the wrong direction never. never now there were plausible reasons. to think that.

the opposition to Donald Trump was so. strong that Democrats could defy. political gravity that was a plausible. theory for what would happen in this. election mhm listening to you say this. it doesn't make a lot of sense that. Democrats were so confident that this. was plausible but they were pretty. confident or at least they acted like. they were very confident where do you. think that confidence came from given. the rules of political gravity you just. described I think it all goes back to. the midterms to 2022 to 2022. because the Democrats seemed to defy.

political gravity in that election you. may remember that was supposed to be the. Red Wave Biden's approval rating was bad. in that election midterms are usually. bad for the party inflation was. happening in that election but the. Democrats were competitive in the house. and they swept key Senate race after key. Senate race where the Republicans had. nominated magaba candidates sto the. steel candidates the carry Lakes right. the carry Lakes of the world candidates. who Democrats thought and who frankly I. also thought. basically akin to Donald Trump H and so.

the implication was that voters dislike. Donald Trump and the Maga movement so. much in the wake of January 6 in the. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Row. versus Wade that Donald Trump or his. allies would not be able to win even the. most classic Battleground States even in. an environment where they really ought. to win and I think that outcome is. behind a lot of the assumptions that. people made about the 2024 campaign H.

and the Assumption was that even against. some pretty serious economic headwinds a. trump style candidate thus perhaps Trump. himself would not Prevail given the. baggage of row and January 6th that's. right and it seemed very plausible in. the wake of the midterms and especially. when you know Donald Trump was looking. ahead to the next two years of criminal. indictments and so on but that's not the. way that turned out and and why I mean.

if the lesson of 2022 was mistaken where. did it go sideways I think that the core. mistake was in drawing an equivalence. between Donald Trump and the Cary lakes. or Doug mastrianos of the world. candidate for governor of Pennsyvania. candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. stopped the steel guy if you are in our. political analyst Shoes Lake and. mastriano and Trump they seem like peas. in a pod these are all candidates who. are distinguished by the effort to over. the election and by their you know.

conduct that defies the Norms of usual. politics and so when a lake in a monri. go down you might infer reasonably that. Donald Trump will also suffer the same. fate but it is clear with hindsight that. voters do not necessarily see an. equivalence between Donald Trump and. Carrie lake or Doug mastriano in fact we. saw it last night Carrie lake is. probably going to lose right because now. she's running again she's running again. for Senate in Arizona. and she's probably going to lose with.

the same group of Voters that's about to. send Donald Trump back to the White. House by maybe a comfortable four point. margin so clearly there are a lot of. Voters who look at Carrie Lake and look. at Donald Trump and say actually I'm. fine with Donald Trump but they're not. fine with Carrie Lake that's not. something I would have assumed a few. years ago I I think that one way to. think about it is that Donald Trump is. sort of reaping some of the advantages. of being an. incumbent an incumbent who cycle an. incumbent who skipped a cycle and maybe.

that's even better than being an actual. incumbent given the you know the. anti-incumbent mood not just here in the. US but all over the world to become. nostalgic yeah that people looked back. on Donald Trump's presidency as a time. of relative stability there weren't Wars. abroad the prices were lower and Donald. Trump today is a much stronger candidate. than he used to be and I think it's the. same factors that make Donald Trump. stronger today are the same ones that. distinguish him from a Cary Lake even. though they seem to be more or less the.

same kind of politician so just to make. sure I understand what you're saying. here about 2022 the mistake that. political analysts seem to have made the. mistake that perhaps Joe Biden KLA. Harris and the entire Democratic. establishment made was to think that. when MAA acolytes of Donald Trump. faltered in those midterms it meant that. he would falter when instead what we. have seen from your grand Theory. explanation here and all the gains. within it among these different groups.

is that wasn't the case and Trump did. well with all these voters in all of. these states who had real objections to. the mini me candidates that's exactly. right n all of this makes me wonder. whether Trump's Victory is a political. realignment because that word gets used. the r word when a candidate. fundamentally. Alters their relationship or their. party's relationship with the entire.

electorate or major groups within the. electorate. it's the high Watermark of what someone. can do in politics and we look for it. really closely and I think all of us. have wondered if this race because Trump. seems to have done so much better with. so many different groups is that. realignment I'm personally listening to. you starting to doubt that it is a. realignment because it sounds like he. did really well because of these. age-old political forces that are at.

play in this race unpopular president. bad economy does not necessarily A. realignment make I can definitely see. the case for that especially if we're. only looking at the 24 election in. isolation but I knew there was going to. be a butt there's going to be a butt but. if if we step back and take the three. Trump elections together 1620 and. 24 I think there's a real case that we. have witnessed a trump realignment hm a.

change in the basic conflict in American. politics between the two parties that. Donald Trump redefined what the. Republican party was it is no longer the. lower case C conservative party of the. establishment and the status quo it is. now an anti-establishment. party that Advocates radical at times. changes to the American establishment. right on issues like immigration. immigration trade foreign policy issues. that were a consensus between the two.

parties in many cases and as a result I. think this election looks like the. culmination of a realignment that really. started in 2016 when Trump made those. enormous gains among white working class. voters he didn't make the same gains. among black Latino or younger voters in. that election in part because he was an. experienced he offended millions of. people he was seen as a sexist and a. racist and so. [Music]. on and for whatever reason 8 years later. those concerns have gradually faded and.

the dissatisfaction of the status quo. has risen to the point were now. workingclass black voters workingclass. Hispanic voters young voters who. previously would have been part of the. opposition to Donald Trump have now. joined white working class voters and. built a fundamentally different. political Coalition than the Republicans. had at the beginning of the Trump era. and to me that meets the definition of a. realignment if it lasts after Trump if. it's added up to a lasting change in. politics rather than just be about this.

celebrity who's occupied center stage in. American life for 8. years and I think that is where our. colleague Peter Baker is going to pick. up where you just left off so. Nate thank you very much thanks for. having me I hope you do get some sleep I. do too you too. [Music]. we'll be right.

back Peter we just spoke to Nate con. about the mechanics of Donald Trump's. Victory across the electoral map and. these broad gains that he made with. pretty much every single group of Voters. and for so long Democrats have been. telling a story about how Donald Trump. is a fringe candidate. whose victory was a fluke in.

2016 and what's clear now is that that's. not true which is what you are chief. White House correspondent and our. resident presidential historian have. been thinking about since election day. so tell us about that right exactly. because the question always was is. Donald Trump uh you know the asterisk in. history or the inflection point where. things have actually changed in a. meaningful sustained way and Democrats. have said as you rightly point out.

throughout this campaign that he was an. anomaly an aberration that he's not. representative of the United States that. we've all known for these many. generations in the final week of the. campaign at K Harris is sort of big. closing rally I was out on the ellipse. and one she said there was really. striking she says you know Donald Trump. is not who we are this is not who we are. and the only conclusion you can come to. when you wake up after the election is.

that's exactly who we are at least the. majority of us a majority who are voting. clearly not only find Donald Trump to be. acceptable but their preferred Champion. he's the one that they think does. represent them the things that outrage. and. offend his. opponents are actually appealing in a. lot of ways to his own base or at the. very least if they're not appealing. they're willing to put any concerns. about the Messiah and far beyond his.

base as we learned from the fact that. he's won the Electoral College and we. believe the popular vote exactly and. that's what makes this so striking this. is not 2016 when he got in through the. electoral college but still lost the. popular vote that was always sort of an. election with kind of a check mark next. to it did you know it obviously counts. but he didn't have the support of the. majority of Americans and by the way not. for a single day of his presidency did a. majority of Americans say they approved.

of his job performance unlike any. president in our history and of course. he didn't get a majority in 2020 either. so the thought was he's always a. minority candidate one who succeeded in. 2016 but really doesn't represent the. American people RIT large this election. shows that he does actually and you're. right if he wins the popular vote which. is the way it looks right now he will. take that as Vindication that he was. right all along and in fact what this. tells us now is we've had a president.

who's done something nobody has done no. president has done in more than a. century which is what which is to bounce. back from a defeat and win again right. not since Grover Cleveland in the. 1880s has a defeated president come back. to win again and what that means is that. the Trump era isn't over it's going to. go on for another four years it will. last basically at least 12 years between. the time he takes the office the first. time and assuming he finishes the second. term that's an extraord AR amount of. time so what you're positing here is.

that by losing in the middle Trump. expands the time frame of his influence. over our politics from the traditional. eight years of a two-term presidency to. 12 years yeah because in fact who do we. talk about most over the last four years. it actually wasn't Joe Biden certainly. wasn't KLA Harris the person who. dominated the national conversation for. four years even though though he wasn't. president was Donald Trump why because.

he was indicted once twice three times. four times he was put on trial convicted. there was another trial Civil Trial and. another Civil Trial and then there was. his dominance in the primaries and. suddenly you realize that he's not gone. away he's not the Pariah that I think a. lot of people even Republicans thought. he might have been after January 6 in. fact he's as powerful within his party. as ever right there was this. temptation to see his his loss as a very.

important repudiation of him right but. it feels like his time outside the White. House actually seemed to increase his. popularity and make his return to power. more possible it really did and that's a. unique thing in modern times our. politics traditionally In Our Lifetime. Michael has been that if you lose you're. done you know nobody wants you back. we're going to move on that never. happened here and he forced Republicans.

who might have wanted to move on to get. in line behind him anyway because he. showed that he had such a connection to. the base such a connection to the. Republican voters that elected officials. who thought he was bad news or wished he. had moved on realized that they couldn't. afford to do that because they. themselves would be then on the outs and. his dominance of the Republican Party. allowed him to Vault back into the arena. with a head of steam and then propelled. him through this fall campaign with.

enough energy and enough uh enthusiasm. to take on the first the incumbent. president and then the incumbent vice. president and to force one out of the. race and then defeat the other one at. The Ballot Box and not just defeat that. other one at the B box but in a fashion. that broadened the Coalition that Trump. had created back in 2016 Peter if this. is going to appeal to your historical. mind but there really only is a single.

president that I can think of whose. Legacy. extends to something like 12 years and. that of course is FDR I don't know if. that's a comfortable analogy I know Joe. Biden wouldn't like it he saw himself as. as. fdrs is that the right place to go yeah. this is one of these great geek. questions the historians will sit there. and argue about but but I think it's an. important one because you know obviously.

Trump is no FDR in lots of ways and and. and that's not a comparison either one. of them would Embrace but to the extent. that FDR was President for 12 years won. a fourth term and would have been. president longer had he not died in. office he dominated the American scene. for so long that a whole generation grew. up without knowing any other president. and I think about that today like you. have 30-year-old voters who went to the. polls this week who have never voted for. a president that didn't you know contest.

did not involve Donald Trump in it right. he has now been the Republican nominee. in three uh presidential elections in a. roow and I think that his dominance is. unlike any president I've seen in his. own party I I don't think Reagan. commanded the Loyalty of the Republican. Party in the same way that Trump does. now and I don't think Clinton or Obama. did in the Democratic parties I think. that Trump is very sweet generous here. well Peter if we think that FDR is the. closest analogy in this conversation to.

Trump I think we can agree on what FDR. and his legacy mean to us to this day. right it's the birth of a social safety. net it's Social Security it's the. promise of the government to the. American people embodied by the New Deal. many of those programs remain with us to. this day how are we supposed to think. about Trump's 12year Legacy and what it. means to us right absolutely no I mean. FDR changed the course of the country. right he invented in effect a new.

American Social compact Reagan did the. same thing it was sort of like the. reaction 40 years later to FDR well now. here we are 40 years after that and we. may have the next president who is. changing the course of the country in. this case Donald Trump with 12 years. both in power and influential on the. stage has Rewritten our understanding of. the politics of America Rewritten our. understanding of the electorate. Rewritten our understanding of our place. in the world and it's not on the same.

liberal conservative spectrum of an FDR. at Reagan it's a whole new version of. that his conservatism is Nationalist and. protectionist and isolationist and. nativist all of these things at the same. time it's culture war and appealing to. those who feel like the country has. drifted away from what they remember it. being so it's it's own unique trumpian.

brand of politics and I guess the. question will be after 12 years and this. is looking too far ahead probably how. enduring is it you know what happens. after he leave does it continue to have. an effect the way FDR did long after he. was in office right and Peter in our. conversation with Nate he looked at all. the things you just described and said. that it amounts to a political. realignment but of course what it may. also amount to is a policy Revolution. that of course was cut short in 2020.

when Trump lost now there's going to be. a second term and we're going to see if. Trump is going to remake the country in. pretty much his own. image yeah I think it's kind of an. American realignment not just a. political realignment in that sense. right it is one of these moments in. history where you can see things begin. to. [Music]. turn and so that's the question I think. you've framed it exactly right we are.

going to have four more years now of. trump in office and then the question. becomes what is the impact after he. leaves what Legacy does he leave behind. has he changed us permanently or at. least for a sustained amount of time. years to come is Trump still the guiding. force in effect for where our country is. heading and how it sees its place in the. world.

Peter thank you very much thanks for. talking to. [Music]. me on Wednesday afternoon vice president. Harris conceded to Donald Trump during a. phone call shortly afterward good. afternoon everyone good. afternoon good afternoon Harris. addressed her supporters on the campus. of Howard University in Washington DC.

the outcome of this election is not what. we. wanted not what we fought. for not what we voted for but hear me. when I. say hear me when I say the light of. America's promise will always burn. bright in a speech Harris said that. while she had conceded the the election. she would never concede the values that.

had animated her campaign and so to. everyone who is watching do not despair. this is not a time to throw up our hands. this is a time to roll up our. [Applause]. sleeves this is a time to organize to. mobilize and to stay. engaged for the sake of freedom. and Justice and the future that we all.

know we can build. together we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today on Wednesday the Democratic. party's hopes of ret taking the House of. Representatives began to fizzle.

Republicans held on to four seats that. Democrats had sought to flip in New York. New Jersey Wisconsin and Iowa as a. result Republicans expressed growing. confidence that they would keep control. of the chamber if that happens. Republicans will control every lever of. power in Washington the house the Senate. and and the.

presidency today's episode was produced. by AA chv Shannon Lynn Mary Wilson Luke. Vander pluk Stella tan Nina Feldman. Claire tennis ketter and will Reed with. help from muj Z it was edited by Devin. Taylor and Brendan clink BG contains. original music by maryan Lano Sophia. lman and Rowan nisto and was engineered. by Alysa Moxley our theme music is by.

Jim brunberg and Ben Lanser of wonderly. special thanks to Rhonda. [Music]. [Music]. KAS that's it for the daily I'm Michael. Babar see you tomorrow. [Music].