Votes are still being tabulated this morning as I write this piece, but, to my disappointment, it appears Donald Trump may have won the 2024 election. That is a tragedy for our country and reason to fear for the future.
Some will say the election is behind us and that it is time to accept Trump returning to power. This is a mammoth lift for many of us, given who Trump is, the things he said during the election, and his agenda. I’m not there yet.
Franklin Roosevelt told America in his Inaugural address in 1933, “We have nothing to fear except fear itself.” Sorry America, with another Trump presidency, we have a lot to fear.
Earlier this week, I wrote drafts of two editorials, but neither fit the apparent outcome of the election. The first anticipated a Harris win, my now-embarrassing prediction. It was titled, “Hallelujah! Now Let’s Get to Work.” The piece offered Harris advice on how to reunite America.
The other piece, anticipating a narrow Trump win, was titled, “Tell Me It Isn’t So.” That piece expressed concern about Trump claiming a win despite the final vote, commented that throughout the campaign, Trump “hasn’t been right,” and shared the worry that if Trump won, J.D. Vance likely would be a future U.S. president.
I closed my piece expressing the hope that if Trump won, he would change. I wrote that one thing might prove Trump-doomsayers wrong: “The nasty, racist, misogynistic, lying Trump who has polluted our airways for the last two years could change. I would welcome that change, but don’t expect it. A 78-year-old man with discernible mental deterioration will not want to sit in the White House to oversee implementation of the policy agenda outlined in Project 2025. Deporting millions of “illegals,” many of whom have been in the United States for years, is not easy work. Will Trump want to forego rounds of golf to personally design the “deportation camps” required to implement the plan?”
Trump’s victory speech earlier this morning included a lengthy encomium to Elon Musk, the billionaire who pumped millions into the Trump campaign’s closing months and who has been promised a job in the new administration. Trump’s untethered comments about Musk are reason to worry. It looks like Musk got his money’s worth.
Why did Trump win? With advance apologies to some Trump voters, let me suggest that many Americans were not ready for a Black, South Asian woman president. Other Trump voters bought into the nasty Trump campaign message that Harris was “low IQ,” a communist (remember “Comrade Kamala?”) or believe that Trump kept America out of wars through skillful diplomacy. I could go on, but Trump’s campaign took advantage of naïve and lazy voters and unleashed the weapon of mass destruction of aggressive lying, discrediting the mainstream press and appealing to our fears and prejudices.
Trump is now president-elect, according to Fox News and what I expect will be a growing number of other news outlets. That makes today a sad day for America. We appear to have elected a criminal to the White House who believes “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
In the coming days, we will read about Trump’s plans to dismiss pending criminal actions against him and to vacate his 34 felony convictions. He will also seek to end State criminal prosecutions against him. The “January 6 patriots,” or at least most of them, will soon be released from jail.
I expect outrageous Trump political appointments, including RFK, Jr., Musk, and possibly the Federal Judge who dismissed the indictments brought against Trump for absconding with federal secret documents and handling them recklessly. Will Judge Aileen Cannon be the next Attorney General? Given Trump’s top priorities, she would be a good choice.
I hope Trump does not follow through on his promises of retribution against Judges, prosecutors, the mainstream media, writers, and other political opponents, but expect it. The retribution may be executed subtly, but it will come.
Vladimir Putin is celebrating Trump’s election. The probable president-elect has promised to end the war in Ukraine before Inauguration Day. Yesterday was a sad day for Ukraine and democracy. Trump is likely to hand a victory to Russia.
I will also hope that Trump is not psychologically troubled as he has appeared on the campaign trail. I hope he remains healthy. The only thing worse than Trump in the White House is J.D. Vance.
The Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:7 said, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” I fear that America is about to reap what was sowed in the 2024 election. May God help us.
Let me close on a positive note: Angela Alsobrooks has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Congratulations, Senator-Elect.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.
