Today’s New York Times front page headline: “TRUMP TRIUMPHS Shocking Upset as Outsider Harnesses Voters’ Discontent.” The story’s headline echos the anti-establishment: Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment. Source: New York Times
So there it is. I really don’t know what to say. Some headlines talk about “election hangover” or “now what” so let’s review and see what just happened. (Full disclosure, I didn’t vote for Trump or Clinton.)
On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump officially announced that he was running for President of the United States. His campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.” Even from the beginning – from his first speech (he descended to the podium on an escalator in Trump Tower and mentioned Mexico sending rapists across the border) – controversy followed Donald, and he spewed hate-filled rhetoric.
On July 27, 2016, after the primaries, I wrote, the nominees have been chosen to represent their parties. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, and making waves as the 3rd (and 4th?) party nominees are Gary Johnson for the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein for the Green Party.
In the past 6 months – since the primaries began – there’s been scandals, mudslinging, and a healthy dose of much-to-do-about-nothing. History has again been made with the nomination of Hillary as the first female nominee of “a major political party” for president. (Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872.) WikiLeaks leaked over 30,000 emails from the DNC – they showed a preference toward Hillary and motives to eliminate Bernie Sanders from the nomination. (Russian hackers got into the email server.) Donald, meanwhile, has been saying some radical things: he would (possibly) eliminate the World Bank; get Mexico to pay for a wall along our border with them; (possibly) not support NATO countries that don’t pay their share; he wants to talk with Putin, …
Hillary and Donald had 4 debates, he lost them all. He was trailing – even just a little – in polls most of the race. He lost the popular vote by 200,000 votes. But, in the end, he won the electorate. They’re still counting votes, but as of now he has 51%. Hillary conceded Wednesday morning thus making Donald J. Trump our 45th president.
I forgot to mention that Donald’s Vice President is Mike Pence. Remember his name I think we’ll see more of him.