Where Trump’s Swing-State Populism Is Headed
The president’s assault on democracy ends in the only places he ever cared about.
Among the faithful in Pennsylvania, Nov. 2, 2020.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaThe populism of President Donald Trump has always been electorally specific. He invokes a great national Us-versus-Them contest, pitting “real Americans” of the White heartland against the darker urban hordes. But as Trump’s assault on the election results reaches its tragicomic climax, it is focused on the only places he ever deemed worthy of note: swing states.
Across a handful of politically ambidextrous states, Trump’s legal carnival has asserted its claims and suffered its comeuppance. The rest of MAGA nation are bit players in this drama, enlisted merely to keep funding the circus. Nowhere is this more apparent than California.