At 2:43 PM on November 6th, the Associated Press announced that Donald J. Trump has been selected to serve the 47th Presidential term. Despite all of the polls before the election, this was not close. Trump won every single swing state with the exception of Minnesota. 

According to Emerson College polling, every swing state had less than a 2% difference in polling before the election. According to them, it was “too close to call.”
And according to the Atlas National Poll, Trump had a +1.1 lead in a sample size of 2,703 and a 2.2% margin of error.
Lastly, according to the NYT/Siena College Election Polls, Vice President and Democratic Presidential Nominee, Kamala Harris was projected to win a total of 4 swing states. Donald Trump was projected to win Arizona, while Pennsylvania and Michigan were tied at 48%.

So with all of these polls, how did we get this result? To understand the results, you need to understand that Trump has been historically underestimated in the polls. In every election he has run, win or loss, he has been underestimated in the polls. Pollsters tried to make up for that this year, and even then they underestimated Trump once again.  

Harris had a terrible turnout as well. As an example, Bronx, NY saw a 34% Trump increase in the vote compared to 2020. This was not specific to the Bronx, either. He went up in all five boroughs of New York City. Even outside of the predominantly blue state, many counties across the nation saw dramatic red increases compared to the 2020 Presidential Election.

Enough about the past, it’s time to focus on the future. Here’s what Americans can expect going forward. 

At the time of writing, Trump has already won the Presidency, and the Senate. He is projected to win the House of Representatives as well. With this, he will have a much easier time influencing policies to get passed.

• Economy 

According to Agenda 47, Trump’s campaign platform, he plans to “End inflation, and make America affordable again”; give large tax cuts to workers, remove the tax on tips, and end outsourcing.

Trump plans to add many tariffs into his policy that would cost business owners more to import goods into the United States. This is done to encourage manufacturing in America, and while manufacturing in the nation is good, it has the potential to just raise prices from corporations and possibly destroy small businesses.

• Immigration

In Trump’s first term, he ran off the policy to add on at least 400 miles of wall on the southern border. He strengthened the current wall already in place before his term, but built about 80 miles of brand new border wall. 

Serving his second term, Trump has stated he plans to further make progress on the wall. Immigration is one of Trump’s most popular policies that one-issue voters like. We could even expect to see an executive order on day one of Trump’s presidency to carry out mass deportation of illegal migrants not seeking asylum.

• Abortion

Although Trump had formerly said that he wishes for a National abortion ban, he has since said that he would like the issue to remain up the states. This could be because a federal ban would be nearly impossible to enact, because it would have to be added as an amendment to the constitution. 

SCOTUS has already confirmed that abortion is an issue left up to the states so we could expect them to uphold that ruling in the future in case that a ban is ever on the horizon. 

• Education

Although it is not listed on Agenda 47, President Elect Trump has spoken about how he wants to completely get rid of the Department of Education. This would cut funding for schools and make it harder for students needing IEP’s to get the accommodations they need. On the other hand, the GOP believes that without the increase of testing scores, the Department of Education is a waste of government spending

Many schools have already begun making Bible Study a required course, while Trump says in Agenda 47 that he plans to cut funding for any schools “pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”.

But what issues matter to the students at Knoch? senior Matthew Welsh has his priorities straight, saying,
“I think it’s good that he’s drilling oil here, we’d have to buy it anyway”.

Although Trump frequently used the phrase “Drill, Baby, Drill!” Forbes Business Analyst David Blackmon thinks that we should not expect our drill expectations to be met. You can read more about it here. But, you never know!

Depending on how you feel about this election, remember that your voice is not gone. The people will be able to elect again during the midterm elections of 2026. These first two years will determine if Trump will be able to keep his trifecta or if the people are not pleased with the way he and his team operate.