TOI Correspondent from Washington: MAGA supremo Donald Trump has flipped Arizona, the last state to officially declare results on Saturday to sweep all seven battleground states in the 2024 presidential election. With this, Trump has chalked up 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris‘ 226 to complete a remarkable win, reversing his loss to Biden in 2020, when the outgoing President won 306-232.
Trump has won 74.6 million votes (50.5 per cent) to Harris’ 71 million (48 per cent) so far, with some votes still to be counted, to win by around 2.5 per cent popular votes nationwide, attesting to a still divided national despite his seemingly sweeping win. Harris has polled 10 million fewer votes than Joe Biden‘s 81 million in 2020, leading to much handwringing and soul-searching among Democrats still trying to figure out if and why so many Democratic voters bailed out on Kamala Harris despite visible enthusiasm on the ground.
Conspiracy theorists are still kvetching about elections that were “stolen,” with the hashtag “cheated” trending on social media amid suspicions that there was some jiggery-pokery to boost Trump’s tally. MAGA principals on the other hand say the only cheating occurred in 2020 when Biden logged a fantastic 81 million votes, nearly 15 million more votes than Hillary Clinton got in 2016.
The President-elect trolled Democrats for their loss despite a massive financial advantage with the Harris campaign raising more than $ 1 billion for the elections. “I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do,” Trump posted on social media, adding, “We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was “Earned Media,” and that doesn’t cost very much.”
Trump also has signaled he’s going to govern differently from 2016 — with new personnel in his cabinet and senior ranks — when he was unprepared and surprised to find himself in the White House. Under pressure from MAGA rank and file to dispense with anyone remotely critical of him during his time out of office, he announced on Saturday that he will “not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” while thanking them for their past service. Haley, who fought him for the Republican nomination and had been critical of him before finally endorsing him, wished him success.
There is also wide-spread apprehension that he will purge the Pentagon of top commanders who do not hew to his line, given his pledge to during the campaign to fire so-called “woke” generals. Some generals are already said to be informally discussing how to respond if Trump should order them into action against civilians or to round up immigrants, as he has sometimes promised to do. The MAGA supremo sees Washington’s military and strategic establishment as perpetual war-mongers and has expressed disdain for America’s endless wars, while at the same time talking up the US military in what his supporters see as a “peace through strength” policy.
The President-elect will be in almost total control of Washington DC when he takes oath of office on January 20, 2025, with only the final tally from the elections to the House of Representatives due. Republicans lead 212-202, with 218 required for a majority, which they are expected to achieve narrowly. In that event, MAGA Republicans will control the White House, the Senate, the House, and the US Supreme Court for a full-court press to fundamentally remake the United States of America.
