Win or lose, movement Trump created stronger than ever
NEW YORK: The US presidential election is still up in the air, but one thing is for certain: The movement created by Mr Donald Trump is alive and well, and more solid than pundits expected.
No matter if he wins or loses, Trumpism looks set to live on.
Republican political pundit Sophia A. Nelson summed it up quickly: "The Trump movement is real. And it's here to stay."
Despite being repeatedly - and wrongly - described as only older, white and rural, Mr Trump's base will help deliver the third highest vote total in American political history - behind only Mr Joe Biden, and Mr Barack Obama in 2008.
Hispanic voters, often expected to lean left, turned to Mr Trump this time around - their turnout in Florida helped him easily defeat Mr Biden in the Sunshine State.
"Ahead of the election, a lot of pundits talked about how Trump wasn't bringing new voters to his camp," said Mr Abraham Gutman, who is on the editorial board at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But he will have, at a minimum, won about five million more votes this time around then he did in 2016 against Mrs Hillary Clinton.
"Regardless of the eventual outcome - in the state contests for electors or in the popular vote margin - the media needs a serious post-mortem to explore how, despite so much ink spilled on Trump voters, the story of the growth of the Trump movement was totally missed," Mr Gutman said.
Mr Trump staged dozens of campaign rallies in the run-up to Tuesday's showdown at the polls.
He was regularly greeted by sizeable crowds. Truck parades for the Republican incumbent rolled through town after town, as did boat processions in waterfront communities.
"His supporters love him. They love him for this fact that he keeps America first and Americans first," Mr Jim Worthington, the founder of People4Trump, told AFP.
"They realise that he's fighting for them. We broadened our coalition." - AFP
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