Donald Trump is coming after you – if you’re a Democrat. Afraid? Of what, you might ask? Donald Trump is soon to be an ex-president, a one-termer who failed to secure re-election, essentially joining the ranks of Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush as members of the unfortunate one-and-done club of Chief Executives. True, come January, 20, 2021, Trump will be out of office, and out of the loop on all things related to executive decision making for the country. He’ll hand over the nuclear launch codes – and much more – to Joe Biden, and is tradition typically allowed to outgoing Presidents, he’ll take one last flight on White House aircraft (it’s not called Air Force One and Marine One when occupied by an ex-president).
After his flight back home to his newly adopted residence in Florida, Trump will join the ranks of Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Obama, reveling in their newfound roles of ambassadors of goodwill for the greater world. After all, the campaign is over, the inauguration is complete, and it’s time to get on with the niceties of life, and that includes your political rivals. Right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. Trump isn’t going away.
For a presidential election that he’ll take to his grave was unfairly stolen from him, Trump will be front and center for the foreseeable future on almost anything that’s political. His base of supporters are furious – and Trump knows it – effectively using their energy to catapult him into the limelight rarely seen – if ever – by an ex-president.
For starters, if the economy begins to take a downward shift after 3 ½ years of consistent growth under the Trump presidency, he’ll be the first to remind the country that Biden was a bad choice. He’ll then turn his attention to the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, and with Republicans having made huge gains historically in the off years (most recently, 1994 and 2010), Trump will be hot on the campaign trail supporting candidates who’ve shown true loyalty to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) platform. There will be dozes – perhaps hundreds – of Congressional candidates seeking Trump’s endorsement in the midterms, and with an ardent base, a Trump nod of approval could make or break a Republican’s election hopes.
Yet Trump’s performance with minority voting blocks in various parts of the country is perhaps the biggest threat – and wake-up call – to Democrats.
Take Florida, where Trump made deep inroad with the Hispanic vote, while defeating former Vice President Joe Biden by a healthy 375,000 votes in total vote count for 2020. Trump garnered 55 percent of Florida’s Cuban-American vote, 30 percent of Puerto Ricans, along with 48 percent defined as “other Latinos” backing Trump. In total, Trump won 45 percent of the Latino vote in the Sunshine state, a huge 11 percent improvement over 2016.
Trump performed exceedingly well with the Latino vote in Texas also, yet another alarm bell for Democrats who’ve traditionally soundly defeated Republicans with what’s now become the country’s largest share of the non-white voting group. And some Hispanics seeking higher office have taken notice, hoping to align their future bids for House and Senate seats with Trump, a sign of the 45th president’s strong appeal with various segments of American Latino voters.
If MAGA was the rallying cry for Trump supporters in 2016 and 2020, Viva Trump may very well be the GOP’s ticket to success in 2022, and beyond.
And there’s talk of a Trump media platform, an alternative to the now frowned upon Fox News Channel by some of the president’s most die-hard supporters. From daily tweets to op-eds, countless post-presidential interviews, and more, Donald J. Trump will be firing on all cylinders, attacking both Democrats – and moderate Republicans – with a never-ending barrage of political bombs.
No, Trump’s not going away, he’s just getting started, ready to wage war with his adversaries in every possible way. And with the 2024 Republican primaries just over the horizon, one could argue Trump is perhaps the presumptive favorite – for now.
About Charles Denyer
I consult regularly with top political and business leaders throughout the world, including former vice presidents of the United States, White House chiefs of staff, secretaries of state, ambassadors, high-ranking intelligence officials, CEOs, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and others. The time I’ve spent with these transformational figures and the insights they’ve shared has afforded me a front-row seat into many of the world’s most consequential events of the past five decades, and what lies ahead.
I’m an established author, with multiple books currently in print, along with being selected as the personal biographer for two of America’s former Vice Presidents – Dick Cheney, a giant in US politics, and Dan Quayle, sworn into office at just 41 years old. My upcoming publications include Texas Titans (2020), the story of two legends in US politics: George H.W. Bush and James A. Bakers, III and Blindsided (2021), an in-depth examination of today’s growing challenges with cyber-attacks, data breaches, terrorism & social violence.
