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Donald Trump Is Weak and Failing

The recent elections were a reality check for anyone who thought the 2024 presidential election was transformative.

Stuart Stevens's avatar
Stuart Stevens
Nov 22, 2025
∙ Paid
Illustration by Riley Levine

As someone who helped create the modern Republican Party – God help me – I am baffled by the conventional wisdom that emerged about the 2024 presidential election.

NBC: Trump just realigned the entire political map. Democrats have ‘no easy path’ to fix it.

New York Times: Trump’s Re-election Defines a New Era of American Politics

The Washington Post: Trump coalition marks a transformed Republican Party

The Nation: Democrats Need to Fundamentally Rethink Everything

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It was all nonsense, as the recent elections proved. This is how societies end up worshipping volcanoes. There’s a drought, the volcano belches, and it rains. Next thing you know, you’re sacrificing virgins to honor the Volcano God.

Donald Trump won an election in 2024 by one of the smallest margins in modern history. Had Harris won Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, she’d be president. Trump’s winning margin in those states was a cumulative 230,000 votes. That’s 0.15% of the total votes.

But the tiny margin of victory isn’t really the story.

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