On January 6, 2025, Vice President Kamala Harris will certify Donald John Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario more fitting or more fascinating, given how viciously Harris and her surrogates attacked Trump throughout the campaign, and given how Harris — like Hillary Clinton before her in 2016 — refused to call Trump to concede before he addressed his giddy supporters around 2:30 this morning.

Trump, as The Wall Street Journal reports, “leveraged anxieties about the cost of living and illegal immigration” to resoundingly whip Harris, “reclaiming the White House in a victory certain to alter America’s priorities and economic relationship with the world.”

They’re telling us. But here’s the best part: “The victory cements Trump as a historic political figure who prevailed despite a brashness and unfounded claims of election fraud that alienated many, proving his surprise 2016 victory over Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton wasn’t a fluke.”

As an admiring former Democrat Congressman Harold Ford put it late last night, “He’s the single greatest political athlete I’ve ever seen.”

Trump’s improbable return to the White House makes him just the second president ever to win non-consecutive terms, and the first to do so since Grover Cleveland did it 132 years ago. As Elon Musk might say …

Let that sink in pic.twitter.com/XvYFtDrhRm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2024

“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before,” said Trump, in a fit of understatement. “I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president.”

Trump is a master showman, but he hardly does justice to what he’s accomplished, which is nothing short of the most spectacular political comeback in American history. Yes, we remember Richard Nixon’s humiliating loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial election (after losing the presidential election in 1960), and we remember him saying to the assembled media, “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

True enough, Nixon would rise from the ashes and win the presidency six years later, but he never faced anything like the headwinds Trump has — the hoaxes, the collusion, the impeachments, the FBI raids, the show trials, the smears, the slanders, the fake news, the indictments. So if Trump’s words seem somewhat unsatisfying, here’s UFC CEO Dana White, whom the president-elect called forth to say a few words:

Nobody deserves this more than him, and nobody deserves this more than his family does! This is what happens when the machine comes after you. What you’ve seen over the last several years? This is what it looks like. They couldn’t stop him. He keeps going forward. He doesn’t quit. He’s the most resilient, hard-working man I’ve ever met in my life! His family are incredible people! This is karma, ladies and gentlemen! He deserves this! They deserve this as a family!

Dana White speaks at Donald Trumps Victory Speech. 🔥‼️

“I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von,
Bussin’ With The Boys, and Joe Rogan.”pic.twitter.com/TRSRrUDIEm

— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) November 6, 2024

The Democrats’ autopsy will take a while to write, but the damage is already considerable. Trump appeared to outperform his fellow Republicans on the ballot, but his coattails were effective enough to help a slate of solid Senate candidates flip somewhere between three and six seats. It also appears that the Republicans will hang onto the House, which will allow them to set the legislative agenda and keep the Democrats’ impeachment fetishists on ice. Senate control is also crucial because it allows Trump to make thousands of political appointments without first having to get Chuck Schumer’s permission.

One other important consideration: While the Senate’s minority Democrats will still have the 60-vote filibuster at their disposal, Republican Senate control allows Trump to pass budgets and enact tax reform via the congressional process called reconciliation. The stage is set for a meaningful second term.

If Trump can win the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College (and he currently leads), his mandate will be even more substantial. The last Republican to do so was George W. Bush in 2004.

Last night, Trump won with a multicolor coalition. In addition to his success with blue-collar whites, he won historic margins with black and Latino voters, and with Jews and Muslims. If he’s really the fascist Nazi that Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats kept saying he was, he sure has a crappy way of showing it.

How are the markets reacting to Trump’s resounding victory? Dow Jones Industrial futures are up 1,250 points, or around 3%. Your 401(k) suddenly looks a bit more impressive.

“I will fight for you,” Trump continued, “for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you, and with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe, and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve,” Trump continued. “This will truly be the golden age of America.”

“This,” said Trump, “will be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country.”

Let’s hope so. As we noted yesterday, there was something providential about Trump’s candidacy and his brush with death, and we suspect he understands this. So, it seems, does Fox News commentator and occasional Trump critic Trey Gowdy. “It’s not a political comeback to me,” said Gowdy. “It’s a political resurrection. I don’t think anybody saw this.” Anybody? Trump certainly had his doubters, but he also had legions of diehard believers.

Putting politics in its place for a moment was Fox News political analyst Katie Pavlich, who said early this morning, “One person who was not there for this celebration tonight was Corey Comperatore, who was killed at that July 13 Butler rally. So God bless his soul. I’m sure he’d be happy with the results tonight.”

Pavlich then looked to the future, adding, “The United States of America turns 250 years old in two years, and Donald Trump is going to be in the White House. And I think he will probably throw a pretty good party.”