Donald Trump exceeded all but his supporters’ most optimistic expectations when he swept the battlegrounds in Tuesday’s election.
Now comes delivering what they voted for.
Despite critics on the left saying the president-elect won because of swing-state voters’ alleged racism and sexism, including those who supported Joe Biden in 2020 but changed sides in 2024, the Trump mandate is loud and clear in favor of a return to norms.
And not the ones President Biden promised to return to and didn’t as he tacked left in rhetoric, failing to build legislative consensus.
Rather, voters in the seven swing states delivered for the president-elect because they expect him to deliver for them.
There is no better time than the next two years to do this. Midterm elections are tough for the party in the presidency no matter what, and today’s House and Senate control could be a different proposition going into 2027.
There are many things Trump can and should do — and they need to be part of his first 100 days as much as practicable, as he’s guaranteed political capital in that honeymoon period.
For starters, voters want energy security.
Trump promised “pumping, fracking, drilling and producing like never before,” and voters in the battlegrounds that decided the election expect him to deliver.
At least 83% of voters in each of the seven states believe more domestic oil and natural gas production would lower inflation, per September American Petroleum Institute polling. Georgia surveyed the highest, with 89% wanting more to be done.
Ninety-two percent of GOP voters and 87% from the other side agree, as do 84% of independents, that domestic drilling is a matter of national security and a counter to geopolitical rivals China and Russia and their vassal states.
And voters expect the southern border to be secured after four years of mismanagement by the outgoing Biden and his “border czar,” Kamala Harris.
As opposed to mainstream commentators, who spent years chiding Americans for daring to call the people from all over the world wading across the Rio Grande “illegal immigrants,” voters understand all too well the direct correlation between an influx of shadowy figures from around the globe and threats to their domestic tranquility in their neighborhoods.
Part of the reason Trump did better even in Democratic strongholds like New York and New Jersey is that the dire consequences of the migrant crisis are unmistakable. Even Harris voters acknowledge that much in private conversations. Trump voters made their concerns public.
As with energy independence, polls made it clear even while the race still hung in the balance that border security was a principal preoccupation for voters, such as an October Wall Street Journal survey showing only 36% of battleground residents thought Harris was better equipped than Trump to solve the illegal immigration problem her administration created.
Trump also must clean up the foreign policy messes that festered under Biden’s watch, and indications are he has buy-in to make progress, particularly with the situation in Ukraine and the regional conflict in the Middle East.
Trump has talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky already, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been complimentary and wants the president-elect to call him.
And the 47th president has made big promises, saying he could end the war in “24 hours.” The clock is ticking; a Day One priority must be finding a resolution to what’s become a quagmire and a stalemate.
Given that Biden botching relations with both Israel and its regional enemies directly led to Harris losing Michigan, Trump is going to have to walk the same tightrope he did in forging his first-term Abraham Accords. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is on board with the White House change of power, but the president-elect courted Muslim voters as well. Resolving the conflict in Gaza and keeping Iran in check to restore a functional rapprochement is essential.
Sanctions on Tehran are a start.
Finally, the election of Donald Trump means the age of DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — is relegated to the dustbin of history.
Democrats lost big in part because the party bet too heavily on transgender athletes in amateur sports and wokeism in the military, and social conservatives and others who align with that group demand meaningful changes.
The sooner, the better for this. And for everything else mentioned here.
