Trump, who was convicted of 34 felonies in May and welcomed local weather change as a result of it will create extra oceanfront properties, ran a nativist marketing campaign constructed round a promise to deport tens of millions of unauthorized immigrants and impose tariffs on imports from international international locations, which many economists have stated would create a despair. The 78-year-old billionaire has additionally vowed to roll again environmental insurance policies and protections, severely curtail the rights of transgender folks, and search revenge in opposition to his political enemies.
Within the closing days of the marketing campaign, Trump-aligned surrogates and influencers, like Musk, pushed for extra males to solid their ballots for Trump. For months, Trump and his vice presidential decide JD Vance appeared on dozens of podcasts focused at younger males. Trump sat with the favored Kick streamer Adin Ross in a reside video at Mar-a-Lago over the summer season, joined wrestler and former vlogger Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, and introduced many influencers, just like the Nelk Boys, alongside on the marketing campaign path.
After the July assassination try in opposition to Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk formally endorsed Trump. “I absolutely endorse President Trump and hope for his speedy restoration,” Musk posted to X at the time.
Musk subsequently donated well over $100 million dollars to assist Trump’s reelection and turned his platform X into a megaphone for the former president. Musk’s America PAC, together with Turning Level Motion, led Trump’s canvassing operations in states like Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin. A few of these canvassers had been refused pay and compelled into unsafe working circumstances, like being transported behind a U-Haul with out seat belts, WIRED reported.
Different influencers lent Trump assist as nicely. On Thursday, influencer and boxer Jake Paul formally endorsed Trump in a video posted to X. On Monday, Joe Rogan adopted go well with in a put up sharing his most up-to-date podcast episode with Musk. Paul has greater than 20 million YouTube subscribers and Rogan hosts the most well-liked podcast within the US with over 14 million followers on Spotify.
“They’ve degraded and disparaged our wonderful males for a lot too lengthy,” Ashley St. Clair stated in an X put up on Monday. “Males should VOTE!”
Within the leadup to the election, polls instructed a deep shift towards Harris amongst senior and impartial girls, seemingly pushed by the Supreme Court docket overturning federal abortion rights and a subsequent wave of unpopular restrictions backed by Republicans on the state degree. In the long run, although, the Trump technique of turning out voters in economically struggling, deindustrialized areas whereas chipping away on the margins amongst historically overwhelmingly Democratic minority constituencies carried the day.
Republicans will take back the Senate, making it a lot simpler for an incoming Trump administration to verify judges and cupboard officers. The steadiness of energy within the Home of Representatives has but to be determined.
