Trump 2.0

In the end, decency could not carry the day. Trump won.

- ALEX MAGNO

Once again, the pollsters managed to understate the depth of his electoral support. Trump swept all the swing states. His party has taken control of the Senate and appears on its way to control the House of Representatives as well.

With the Supreme Court dominated by his conservative appointees from his first term, ruling the president enjoyed immunity from nearly all official actions, Trump basically holds sway over the entire government. Trump 2.0 will have no guardrails, no check on its drive to remold policies on everything from reproductive rights to Ukraine.

His first administration was marked by nearly constant policy chaos. His next term will be chaos on steroids.

Trump, the political narcissist, interprets his sweeping mandate as a license to bend the entire US government to his will. His party, led by loyalists, will not likely stand in his way. He did promise to cleanse the bureaucracy of career people and fill the ranks with his loyalists.

He once said during the campaign that he would get rid of the generals commanding the mighty US military establishment. This seems to have been made imminent after all the criticism of Trump aired by retired generals and senior security officials, including those who served in his first administration.

There are many things that can be said about the errors of Kamala Harris' campaign. To begin with, she chose a person with no gravitas to be her running mate (fearful, as critics claim, that she might be overshadowed). She invested in her campaign on reproductive rights even as polls scream that it was the economy that was foremost on people's minds.