I hope the American Centre-Left and the wokeratti aren't drinking too much champagne after their electoral exertions of a day or two ago. I certainly hope they aren't getting the wrong message from these Midterms. However, I see that many of them are, in fact, getting the wrong message, and seeing the defeat of Trump's party as a repudiation of Trumpism. That is simply not the case.
The cutting edge of Trump's defeat was sky-high fuel prices, cost-of-living issues, and the blatant profiteering of the billionaire class, thrown into sharp relief by Elon Musk's shenanigans.
But ideologically it was the way this cutting edge tied into Trump's betrayal of his own principles that damned his party so thoroughly with the electorate, leading to them to choose the only other option in the "shit-or-vomit" two-party system that America offers voters.
Trumpism as it was rolled out to the voters had four core ideas. These included:
(1) Secure the Border
(2) No Pointless Foreign Wars
(3) Drain the Swamp (+ release the Epstein File)
(4) Make it in America
Actually, those ideas are more popular than ever, especially number two. And even high fuel prices would have less bite if they had happened while Trump was sticking to his principles, rather than betraying them.
Where Trump fucked up was as follows:
He messed up the first core idea by turning it into a performative, typified by cruelty rather than solid results. ICE was all about the "small dick" energy of its low-rent "macho-signalling" enforcers, and not enough about cracking down on the businesses that fuel the whole cross-border influx.
Small dick energy, the recurring note of the Trump mis-administration
Ironically, this cack-handed approached even pissed off a lot of the Hispanic voters that Trumpism had attracted in 2024 by its other core ideas.
Next Trump totally, 180-degrees betrayed "No Pointless Foreign Wars" and "Drain the Swamp." In fact, Trump became the Swamp! Then, because he was so blatantly corrupted by Zionist and Gulf money, he embarked on a pointless foreign war, far more moronic than anything cooked up by the Neocons back in the day.
This was the clincher for many former Trump voters, while those who still remained loyal (due to low IQ) probably couldn't afford to drive to the polling booths on election day!
This was the clincher for many former Trump voters, while those who still remained loyal (due to low IQ) probably couldn't afford to drive to the polling booths on election day!
As for "Make it in America," this is a policy that was always going to be difficult because America is a country that is geared to consumption rather than consumption. However, the idiotic way that Trump used tariffs merely caused pointless economic pain, while also undercutting America's standing with its allies and trading partners.
This is important because those allies provide a massive market for the two industries that America is still something of a world leader in, namely tech and armaments. But now the EU, the UK, Canada, Japan, and even the Gulf States are all looking at how they can be a lot less reliant on these US-based industries.
This is important because those allies provide a massive market for the two industries that America is still something of a world leader in, namely tech and armaments. But now the EU, the UK, Canada, Japan, and even the Gulf States are all looking at how they can be a lot less reliant on these US-based industries.
The great irony is that Trumpism, if it had been implemented by someone other than Donald Trump, could possibly have worked. It might still work in the future, although a name change, as well as a personnel change, may be in order.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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