Donald Trump’s Unexpected Return: How Immigration, Economy Tipped Scales In US Election 2024
Eight years after he upset Hillary Clinton’s apple cart and occupied the White House in the most unexpected way and four years after he was thrown out of the Oval Office in the election result he refused to acknowledge, Donald Trump has captured the most coveted office once again.
The Republicans also controlled the US Senate by capturing seats in the elections that were held along with the US Presidential Election 2024. The GOP also won 198 seats of the House of Representatives, one more than before.
How Did Donald Trump Turn Table?
None of the pre-poll surveys predicted a victory for Donald Trump nor the Grand Old Party was considered fit to win the enough seats to control the US Senate. How did it happen that the former US President proved everybody wrong?
The Trump Card
Political analysts believe the issues of immigrants and the economy proved to be the trump card used by Trump. The Republican candidate made it clear in the most unambiguous terms that he was against the influx of illegal immigrants. He declared that he would carry out the biggest deportation if illegal migrants in history.
Illegal Migrants Become Tipping Point
Donald Trump upped the ante against Kamala Harris in the very beginning by holding her responsible for the influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants, who in his words, had invaded the country and would soon capture it.
People of Latin American descent, particularly those from Mexico, were his targets. However, he spared neither people coming from China, a common denominator of his hate campaign, nor those from India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited scorn and criticism for urging for “Abki baar, Trump Sarkaar” (Trump Government Next Time) at the Howdy Modi programme in 2024.
Illegal Migrants Become Target Of Hate Campaign
Donald Trump succeeded in convincing a vast majority of the US citizens that these migrants are not welcome, they are a burden on the American society and economy, and create problems many problems including those of law and order.
He deliberately forgot to mention that these migrants also contribute to the US economy by supplying cheap labour, they do many things which the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) would not do.
Economy Tips Balance
Donald Trump also decided to rake up the issue of the economy and drive the point that the Joe Biden Administration failed to address the issues of unemployment, price-rise, housing, insurance, and other issues. He asked the voters directly if they were in a better economic condition compared to four years before.
Fear Of Economic Slowdown
Though Joe Biden created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and housing prices came down, he failed to rein in inflation. In the last quarter before the US Presidential Election 2024 took place, economists feared an economic slowdown.
It was fueled by the announcement of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that the time for a rate cut has come. The stock market reacted violently, there was a bloodbath in the New York Stock Exchange and the S&P Index nosedived.
Tax Breaks, Protectionism
Donald Trump also came out with the announcement of tax cuts for big corporate houses, which stood beside the Republican candidate in the hope of raking in the moolah in a big way.
An economic policy based on tax-cuts and protectionism failed to deliver when Trump was the US President during 2016-2020. Despite following the policy of protectionism the U.S. steel industry lost 75,000 jobs, and Michigan’s auto industry shed 4,000 jobs by 2019. The U.S. Steel and Kennametal in Pennsylvania, and General Motors in Michigan, closed down parts of their factories, and major coal company Murray Energy filed for bankruptcy.
Trump’s policy may fail in the future, but it has delivered what he expected during the election campaign. It succeeded in convincing the masses that Donald Trump would improve the economy. People also believed that the whip against the immigrants would be beneficial for the masses and really the Republican candidate make America Great Again.
