Why a ‘blue wave’ today is not necessarily a rejection of Trumpism
Americans put the president and his Republicans in power – twice – for a reason. If voters deliver a harsh verdict today, it is because they didn’t get what they were promised.
“One of the key parts of the MAGA agenda was no new foreign wars. This is a guy who was seeking the Nobel Peace Prize. This is a guy who railed against George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He talked to me and Lucy [Turnbull’s wife] about it once. He was obsessed about this.”
Trump played the populist card in 2024, and Democrats have played it in 2026. The party’s key election message has been about affordability: that Trump’s tariffs, trade disputes and war with Iran mean you are paying more for petrol and groceries.
That is true – petrol prices are higher than usual, though not as high as their all-time peak in 2022. Australians, who depend on imports, also pay much more for petrol than Americans.
If it is the case that affordability is the big issue at this election, then, as with foreign policy, it is not so much that voters are abandoning their populist positions as judging that the president and his Republicans have not fulfilled them.
