“What should dictators in Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea expect? Will Trump feud with Republicans, make deals with Democrats, treat abortion as a bargaining chip, and halfheartedly defend religious freedom? Will he increase the national debt as much as Democrats have been doing?”
When the New York Mets won the 1986 World Series, a best-selling book by Jeff Pearlman described their “season of brawling, boozing, bimbo chasing, and championship baseball with … the rowdiest team ever to put on a New York uniform—and maybe the best.”
Thirty years later, New Yorker Donald Trump culminated a life of all that (except boozing) with the rowdiest campaign in American history—and, we learned on Nov. 8, maybe the most surprising. After relying on big rallies, ignoring the “ground game,” and name-calling in a way that delighted those tired of courtesy, he shocked hostile media, defied pollster and pundit expectations (and WORLD’s), and gained a golden ticket to the White House.
Trump predicted he would win in Florida and the northern Rust Belt. He was right: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa went his way. Democrats hoping for a Senate majority also were disappointed as Republicans won races once seen as toss-ups in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
