Voters Turn on Trump at the Midterms

Voters Turn on Trump at the Midterms

I like Donald Trump. Don’t judge me, but I like him.

Now, I don’t think he’s the ‘messiah’. He’s clearly a flawed individual, but nevertheless, I like him.

Sure, he says some things you’d prefer he didn’t say.

He can be boorish.

He can be rude.

He can be downright unpresidential.

And I have to admit, when it comes to giving you examples, I’m rather spoiled for choice.

But this one is as good as any:

“I looked at his ass, and I’ve never done that with a man before. It’s true. Off the record, women, yes. Men, no.

“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before. Nicki Minaj.”

Now, like you, I’d really rather he didn’t say stuff like that. And I don’t think it helps his cause at all. And it gives his critics an endless supply of material.

But here’s the thing. Trump also says things that need saying, things that other politicians are too frightened, too calculating, or too ideologically compromised to say. Said Donald Trump about transgenderism:

“Your boy Tim leaves your house—a little boy leaves your house — and Tim comes back four days later as Sarah.

“And we have that. A lot of times you say that: ‘Oh, well, that’s sort of not funny, but nobody believes it.’ You have that. You have states where they can do whatever they want.

“It’s crazy. It’s crazy. And we’re not going to let it happen.”

It is crazy. And I’m glad someone’s not going to let it happen. And I’m glad someone’s saying it.

Would that some of our politicians were as blunt about biology.

Midterm Elections

In the wake of Tuesday’s Republican wipeout, we’re hearing plenty of explanations. And one popular theory is that voters punished Trump for his rudeness and for statements like that.

Here’s Wisconsin Republican Glenn Grothman reflecting on last week’s result:

“President Trump, who I think has a very good cabinet, sometimes talks inappropriately, not very presidential. I talk to a lot of people, and I’ll tell you, it turns people off.”

Now, as I said, I don’t disagree, and I completely understand the sentiment. But what’s more concerning: Trump talking about someone’s bottom, or the language of Democrat Abdi Dasi, who yesterday became America’s first Somali lawmaker?

Here’s part of his victory speech, which is probably more presidential than Trump. (Speech is in Somali.) But then again, how would any American know?

Indeed. I thought about playing you more of that speech, but then again, what would be the point? So instead, I thought I’d play you some of Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar’s victory speech. (Speech is in Somali.)

Not feeling inspired? Really? The American voters seem to love it.

Hatred of Donald Trump

Sean Hannity, who of course is a huge Trump fan, said much of yesterday’s result was driven by a personal hatred of Donald Trump:

“Hatred is a hell of a motivator. I think the hatred for this man is unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

And I don’t think Hannity’s wrong at all. Here’s former Democrat strategist James Carville.

“I got Trump derangement syndrome. I hate the m***********. And you know what? I don’t want to get rid of it. I don’t want to get better. I want to get worse. I want to hate him more.”

“I pray to God in heaven: God, rain the righteous rain of Trump derangement syndrome on me. Pray for me, Lord. I’m your vessel on this earth. Pray for the people that listen to this. We want more. We want to hate the son of a ***** so much that we can’t see straight.”

Now, be careful what you pray for.

Electing ‘America Last’ Democrats

American voters, in order to express their hatred of Donald Trump, have expressed their support for Democrats like Air Kawas.

While Trump, love him or loathe him, ran to make America great again, Air Kawas was yesterday elected with an entirely different agenda:

“What led me to run for office, though, is the complete denial of acknowledging something that was happening on such a large-scale level in Gaza. And so that made me really look at the political system and just think to myself: there really shouldn’t be one more person sitting in a seat who is going to refuse to acknowledge what is happening to Palestinians and also fight for us.”

“I don’t like what Trump’s doing to America, so let’s vote for someone who openly says they want to turn America into a servant of Palestine.” And they did.

Have a look at how this woman, elected by the American people yesterday, announced her victory on X. She posted a photo of herself with the caption, “First Palestinian elected in New York State.” And look at the top of her post. She writes, “We made history,” and puts beside it not an American flag but a Palestinian flag.

Which kind of begs the question: When she says, “We made history,” which “we” is she talking about?

We could go through example after example of people elected yesterday who shouldn’t be anywhere near the levers of American power.

The most famous of all was the now Michigan senator-elect Abdul Elsad, a far-left radical Islamist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a hatred for Israel, and a disdain for traditional America.

He was fairly gloating at the result last night, where he addressed the vice president, JD Vance, calling him “Habibi” — which is Arabic for “my darling.”

“JD, Habibi.

“There is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”

The Iran War

The irony, of course, is that the other big reason Americans turned on Trump was his war with Iran, which they rightly blame for driving up petrol prices.

Let’s be honest: when filling up your car starts to resemble a mortgage application, voters do tend to become less interested in geopolitics.

But Trump went to war, don’t forget, to stop Iran, an Islamic regime sworn to the destruction of America, from getting nuclear weapons — a goal supported by every previous American administration, Republican and Democrat alike.

Trump is regularly portrayed as a warmonger.

Yet, ironically, I suspect one reason this war has dragged on so long is that he’s been reluctant to go all in. He keeps offering olive branches to a regime whose response to olive branches is generally to set olive branches on fire.

The result is an on-again, off-again conflict that clearly has frustrated the American public. But surely it should also be obvious that eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat and ending the reign of the world’s greatest sponsor of Islamist terror—that’s a goal worth some economic pain.

“You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or everything that you see here someday might not exist. The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it. Probably that’s the primary reason. The price, not the war, the price.”

See, this is one of the reasons I like Trump. In Trump’s mind, it’s better to pay a price now and deal with the Iranian threat once and for all than to keep kicking it down the road.

Well, he’s paid a price, losing control of both the Senate and the Congress.

The public, though, have made it clear that if they have to choose between a nuclear-armed Iran and high fuel prices, they’ll accept a nuclear-armed Iran, along with some supporters of the Iranian regime in their own halls of power.

A Culture of Convenience and Decline

Our own government is just as shortsighted. How many times have we heard members of the Albanese government complain that they just want the war to stop so that fuel prices can start coming down?

Now, trust me, I get it. Every time I fill up, I feel as though I’m making a voluntary contribution to the retirement fund of a Saudi prince. But do we really believe we’ll never have to deal with Iran?

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described yesterday’s US midterms as, and I quote, “a great democratic event.”

Do you reckon he would have described it that way if the Republicans had romped it in? I’m not sure.

But then Marles said this in relation to the conflict in the Middle East:

“Our point has been consistent. We want to see a de-escalation there.”

It fascinates me that our deputy prime minister — and defence minister, don’t forget — says he wants to see de-escalation when it comes to war with the greatest sponsor of terror on the planet, rather than victory.

Why wouldn’t you be saying, “We want to see the ayatollahs completely defeated. We want to see an end to support for groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. We want to see the regime that chants ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ defeated. We want to see the fall of the regime that murders tens of thousands of its own citizens. We want to see the regime that sponsored terror attacks against Australians on Australian soil defeated”?

Why would you want de-escalation with such people, as if accommodation would ever be possible, rather than complete and utter victory?

Well, here’s what Marles went on to say:

“We want to see a return to normality in terms of the global fuel supply chain, and that’s, I think, really important in terms of the global economy and, obviously, how we’re experiencing that here in Australia.”

And that says it all, really. Defeating a terrorist regime is a worthy ambition right up until it starts costing us more at the bowser.

And that, I think, is the most depressing part of yesterday’s US midterms.

A culture that’s increasingly preoccupied with hurt feelings and offensive language, but increasingly reluctant to make sacrifices for anything larger than itself.

A culture that would rather accommodate its enemies than confront them.

A culture that’s become so uncomfortable with the language of conflict, it seems to have forgotten the language of victory.

And when a society is no longer prepared to sacrifice for the safety of its children or to confront the forces of evil in the world, it shouldn’t be surprised when those forces grow stronger.

I fear Americans will one day regret the choice they’ve made.

And if they don’t, their children probably will.

Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

ODM Daily Commentary

Let’s be honest: This article exposes a spiritual sickness far deeper than politics. A nation—and a Church—that will not sacrifice for anything greater than its own comfort is already in decline, no matter what the opinion polls say. The American voters did not merely punish Donald Trump’s rudeness at the midterms; they revealed a culture that has traded conviction for convenience and courage for cheap fuel. And before we point the finger across the Pacific, Australian Christians must examine their own hearts, because our politicians echo the same shallow cry—”de-escalation” with the world’s greatest sponsor of terror rather than victory over it.

Scripture is not ambiguous about this. We are told to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), not to negotiate with him. We are commanded to “be strong and courageous” and not to be terrified (Joshua 1:9). Yet the prevailing spirit of our age—inside and outside the Church—is one of accommodation. We would rather avoid conflict, avoid offence, avoid sacrifice, and avoid the cost of standing for truth. And so the vacuum is filled, just as John Anderson warned in a previous ODM Daily article, by those committed to tearing down what remains of our civilisation.

What is most disturbing is the spiritual blindness on display. James Carville literally prays for more hatred—”rain the righteous rain of Trump derangement syndrome on me”—while calling it a prayer to God. That is not political passion; that is a demonic inversion of prayer itself. Meanwhile, elected officials celebrate “making history” under a foreign flag, and Christians shrug. We have forgotten the language of victory because we have forgotten the God who wins the victory. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). But a people who will not name the enemy will never experience the triumph.

There is a warning here for every believer: a culture preoccupied with hurt feelings and offensive language, but reluctant to make sacrifices for anything larger than itself, is a culture ripe for collapse. The same is true of a church more worried about being liked than being faithful. Jesus did not call us to de-escalate with the forces of darkness; He called us to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him into battle (Matthew 16:24; Ephesians 6:12). The cost of discipleship is real, and it is always cheaper than the cost of decline.

Americans may well rue the day. Australians may too. But the deeper question is whether the Church will rue the day it chose comfort over courage, popularity over truth, and de-escalation over victory. “Choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). The bowser may be expensive, but the soul of a nation—and a church—is priceless.

Keywords

Voters turn on Trump, America midterms, Donald Trump, Trump derangement syndrome, James Carville, Sean Hannity, transgenderism, Iran war, Iranian nuclear threat, radical Islam, Muslim Brotherhood, Ilhan Omar, Air Kawas, Richard Marles, de-escalation versus victory, culture of convenience, sacrifice, civilisation decline, spiritual blindness, Joshua 1:9, James 4:7, Ephesians 6:12, Romans 8:31, Christian courage, wake-up call