The People Have Spoken: Trump’s Landslide and the Disconnect of the Elite

Kamala Harris took the stage last week, delivering her rallying cry against Donald Trump with a flourish, declaring, “That is not who we are.” But on election night, as a landslide swept Trump back into office, it became clear that maybe, just maybe, this is exactly who we are — or at least who most Americans have decided to be.

It seems the left has been blissfully unaware of the sentiment brewing outside the halls of power. To political elites, Trump was always supposed to be a historical footnote, a bizarre blip in an otherwise forward march of progressive ideals. Yet with the outcome of this election, it’s hard to deny: America’s populace apparently didn’t get the memo.

The shock is palpable. How could a nation, treated to endless lectures on enlightenment and unity, rally instead around the so-called disrupter in chief? Trump’s landslide victory wasn’t just an electoral outcome; it was a seismic rebuttal to the elite narrative, a not-so-subtle declaration that perhaps, just perhaps, “the people” might see the world differently from their cultural betters.

Harris and her party preached unity, but many Americans saw that unity as thinly veiled contempt for their values, their frustrations, and their desire for a government that looks inward before looking outward. The left pushed forward a message of joy, harmony, and “we’re all in this together,” while much of the country seemingly rolled its eyes and handed Trump the political equivalent of a golden ticket.

Political historian Timothy Naftali commented, “The left has been left scratching its head, wondering why voters didn’t see Trump as the aberration they’d assured us he was. But this landslide suggests a bigger disconnect — one where the elites’ version of America doesn’t align with what much of the country actually experiences.”

To the elites, Trump represents every social ill. To his supporters, he represents the ultimate antidote to an overreaching, overly polished political class. For them, Trump’s imperfections — his controversies, his brashness, his refusal to play by the rules — aren’t liabilities but assets. After all, they reason, who else but Trump would upend a system they see as corrupt and out of touch?

While the left mourns the “lost opportunity” for national healing, Trump’s supporters seem to have chosen a different kind of healing—the kind where their voices are louder, their grievances aired, and their values reflected. Trump’s America shrugs off elite conventions and doubles down on populism, resistance to politically correct orthodoxy, and an insistence on putting America first.

So here we are. The election has shown us that maybe America wasn’t waiting to be unified under the polished banner of progressive enlightenment. Maybe America was waiting to tell the ruling class where they could put that banner.

Trump’s landslide victory is a loud and clear message: for now, America belongs to Trump, and the people behind him are in no mood to play by anyone else’s rules.