US presidential election: Trump may have lost, but Trumpism has only just begun

Biden has won the most votes ever cast for a US presidential candidate, but Trump’s shadow will loom large over his tenure

Republican strength in the senate will stifle his options for a change of tack on trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and limit scope for a reset with China

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Trump supporters protest over the Nevada vote in front of the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00am, 8 Nov 2020Updated: 9:06am, 8 Nov 2020

“Even if Donald Trump loses, Trumpism will live on.”

This idea ran through several commentaries that imagined a victory for the Democratic Party’s candidate Joe Biden before the November 3 US presidential election that pitted the former vice-president against incumbent iconoclast Donald Trump.

With Biden’s election as America’s 46th president now confirmed – thereby consigning Trump to a one-term presidency – the full meaning of “Trumpism will live on” is beginning to sink in.

Biden is poised to take over having won the most votes ever cast for a US presidential candidate; but the results also show that Trump expanded his support in rural areas and is likely to save his party’s senate majority in the process.

Trumpism, the pseudo-doctrine comprising a heady mix of boorishness, economic nationalism, majoritarianism – and, according to many critics, racism and a flirtation with authoritarianism – continues to have many admirers.

The latest results showed Trump had gained well over 70 million votes, or 48 per cent of all ballots cast – despite some sections of the liberal punditry predicting a “blue wave” owing to the administration’s woeful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.