Essay: Why Trump Won

Read also: Dear White Democrats (Free to read)

And: Feminism vs Genocide (Free to read)

And: Trump, Rape, and Racist Fuckery (Free to read)

If Black and people of colour were the only voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump would’ve lost in the largest defeat in presidential history. 

Instead, Donald Trump will become president of the United States again because of white people. 

White men and white women voters, in their majority, are the reason. White men and white women voters, in their majority and knowing who he is and what he represents, wanted Trump in the White House again. It is not Black voters, Hispanic/Latinx voters, Asians, Arabs or Muslims. It is white voters.

And as per tradition, white people–the vast majority of voters in the U.S.--spend the post-election weeks castigating, berating, and blaming Black and people of colour–the vast minority of voters in the U.S.--for letting them down.

Why?

Because it is easier to castigate, berate, and blame people who don’t look like you.

Why?

Because of white supremacy. A white supremacy that takes for granted that white men and white women in their majority always vote Republican and that it is incumbent on the rest of us to save the country from the consequences of that vote.

A white supremacy that Democrats like to think they’re immune from but which they share hardily with Republicans.

And as per tradition, white people–the vast majority of voters in the U.S.--spend the post-election weeks castigating, berating, and blaming Black and people of colour–the vast minority of voters in the U.S.--for letting them down.

As one think piece after another analyses which minority group shifted their vote in what direction, it is imperative to sit with these numbers: in the U.S., 71 percent of voters are white. Compare that to Hispanic/Latinx voters who comprise just 12 percent of the electorate and who are being tasked by white liberals with carrying Kamala Harris’ defeat to Trump.

Washington Post, using Edison Research Exit Polls.

If you are white and you’re looking for someone to blame: it is your grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers and mothers, husbands and boyfriends, aunts and uncles–people who look like you and who you least like to confront about their voting habits.

It is white women crying about their husbands’ voting - and doing nothing about it.  It is white people talking about a time when “nobody talked about politics with anybody, we all mind our own business” - when they’re referring to their 100% white cis het suburban neighborhoods, and hoping that everyone will come to their BBQ still, next 4th of July. (These are actual white women I know)

And at 37 percent of the electorate, white women are the largest voting bloc. And once again they did not disappoint the Republican party candidate, for whom they have consistently voted in their majority for the better part of seven decades.