A Night of Pure Trumpenfreude

Helen Lewis: “The lesson that Trump took from his popular-vote win in 2024 was that he could do whatever he liked—that what voters wanted was Maximum Trump, the full-fat version of the pallid Diet Trump he was forced to be in term one. This was a huge strategic error, a piece of hubris so epic that it should have its own monument. (A new use for the planned Arc de Trump, perhaps.)”

“The Democrats, by contrast, took the right lessons from 2024: The economy matters more than anything. Voters don’t like foreign wars. Middle Americans are more socially conservative than the Democratic establishment, but they are not cruel.”

“Some of the Democrats to be elected this time will have their own scandals—some of these races have been only lightly reported, and their candidates under-scrutinized. But at least people in those districts will know they can swing back the other way next time and vote them out.”