While Democrats continue to wring their hands over what went so seriously wrong in 2024 — and there are many complicating factors — there’s one simple truth about it all: Donald Trump listened to voters better than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did.
On the economy, immigration and crime, Trump and his campaign heard voters’ concerns, whereas Biden, Harris and Democrats spent too much time trying to convince them things were actually going great.
Of course, Trump and Republicans also did what they usually do, which is prey on these fears, foment and exacerbate them, and then tell people who to be mad at over them. Seizing on existing anxieties and then inventing bogeymen to become visual avatars of them — like pet-eating migrants in Springfield, Ohio — is something Trump is masterful at. This, to be sure, is lamentable and not cause for congratulations.
But because Trump and Republicans exaggerate, mislead and lie about the cause of voters’ concern, and often lean heavily on some pretty gross and obvious bigotry in the process, Dems end up dismissing the legitimate fears of voters along with the manufactured fears Trump has ginned up.
So Trump, in spite of his well-documented moral corruption and depravity, at least appears to be in touch with voters, while Democrats, with their moral superiority and defensiveness of policy failures, seem very much out of touch.
Eight years after Trump first won an unlikely election, it doesn’t feel like the left has figured this out yet.
But Trump’s ability to listen to voters might have stopped once the polls closed on Nov. 5.
Many of his Cabinet selections belie the very premise of his campaign, which rested substantially on fixing these three key policy problems. Voters told us over and over again that they wanted the cost of goods to go down, big ticket items like cars and homes to become more affordable, the borders closed, and violent criminals locked up instead of re-released to commit more crimes.
‘Wholly unqualified,’ ‘health care quackery’
Of the thousands of swing state voters I heard from over six months covering this election, not one voter said they were voting for Trump to exact revenge on his enemies at the Department of Justice.
And yet, there was no other reason to tap a wholly unqualified, legally imperiled, ethically challenged ex-congressman like Matt Gaetz — with all of his alleged sex and drug scandals — for the nation’s top cop.
The pick was ridiculous. Gaetz, who has since withdrawn his nomination, has never served as a prosecutor, peddled false claims about election fraud, pushed conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, defended the criminals who broke into the Capitol, and led a personally-motivated month of chaos in the House to get then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy ousted. He’s also been investigated by the very body he’s nominated to lead — which says it all.
Gaetz had been nominated to be Trump’s personal attack dog — which isn’t what voters elected Trump to do and fortunately, they’ll be spared.
Nor did voters tell us they were voting for Trump to get fluoride out of the water, or end vaccines. And yet, Trump has nominated sex-crazed quack Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become the nation’s health and human services secretary — a person with no background in medicine, science or research. RFK Jr. dropped out because he performed so poorly, primarily because of his well-known health care quackery, the very thing Trump is now elevating. Who is this for?
Nor did we hear from any voters who said they wanted Trump to make the military less woke. But that’s exactly what they’re getting with “Fox & Friends” weekend host Pete Hegseth. While he’s a decorated veteran, the defense secretary job is usually given to a decorated general or industry leader, and importantly to a non-partisan who hasn’t spent years berating half the country — and the military itself — on cable news. As the House Armed Services Committee ranking member put it, “The job of secretary of defense should not be an entry-level position….”
These picks aren’t meant to solve the problems Trump’s own voters are most worried about. They’re for Trump himself, for his own retribution, his culture wars pet projects, and to enrage the left.
Meanwhile, the millions of new voters Trump managed to get by listening better than Democrats will have to hope his other picks actually do go into the administration to solve their problems. They’re eager to see the specifics of Trump’s economic, immigration and crime policies that he avoided laying out during the election.
Instead, so far, they’re getting all the other stuff that always comes with Trump — showmanship, pettiness, and empty promises.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
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