Trump was always the result of the conservative populist coalition, not the cause Analysis from Salena Zito:
NEW ALEXANDRIA, Pennsylvania — Ever since former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, there has been a flag hanging from a home not far from where I live that reads"Trump 2024" — one of the thousands I have seen across the country in the past two years. But yesterday, when I drove past this home, that sign was gone.
What made Trump inspire voters in places like central Appalachia is that he recognized their strengths, which had been long ignored and often ridiculed by the cultural elite. The media, the political parties, the corporations, Hollywood, and academia looked down their nose at ordinary people who live here and basically anywhere more than 20 minutes outside of major metropolitan areas. These people, however, have their pride.
They were uninspired by Mitt Romney in 2012, so they sat back — Obama became the rare president who earned fewer votes in his reelection than he did in his first run. But they showed up in force in the 2014 midterm elections, and by 2016, they had settled on Trump as the only one who understood their potential. His message was about them, not him. And it worked.
In short, what Trump started to get wrong is what the media have always gotten wrong about these voters — they do not live by a credo filled with resentment and grievances. Their aspirations are about their communities, families, and their future, and that is how they vote.