Cindy Hyde-Smith's election to the US Senate in the Mississippi runoff pretty much brings an end to the midterm elections (Deo Gratias), and may mark a high point for the electoral prowess of Donald Trump. In fact, it would be smart for Trump to announce before the new Congress convenes in January that he will not seek re-election, and will probably back Mike Pence for president in 2020.
Hyde-Smith's victory also shows that Republicans can win a racially charged election in Mississippi in 2018 (albeit by a smaller margin than would otherwise have been the case). But they can't in New York, as John Faso demonstrated by losing his congressional seat. In fact, through countenancing a campaign against Antonio Delagado that could plausibly be characterized as racist, Faso ended his own distinguished political career on a tarnished note, while Hyde-Smith's casual blunders into fraught racial territory seemed more innocent.
As for Trump, he did play a significant role in increasing the Senate's Republican majority, but otherwise the Democrats won the midterms, especially by achieving a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives (where Delgado will take Faso's seat).
Trump's luck is unlikely to last forever, and concentrating on government, rather than politics, for the next two years is likely to burnish his place in history. There are potential deals to be made with Nancy Pelosi's Democrats, on issues from infrastructure to immigration (which does not rule out striking temporary deals now in a lame-duck session, before Pelosi takes over as speaker).
One area for potential agreement is industrial policy. Trump is now railing against General Motors' planned plant closings and job cuts, after President Obama bailed the company out. It's a valid point, and one Democrats should respond to, if they can get over their hatred for the president and obeisance to Wall Street neoliberalism. Why should GM's executives loot the company at the expense of American workers and taxpayers? Trump also can return to a crucial campaign theme (in part abandoned in his administration), by making common cause with some Democrats and a few Republicans (like Rand Paul) who want to stop embroiling the United States in endless wars and the threat of war all over the world.
The president can also keep (most) Republicans happy by continuing to appoint social conservatives to the judicial and executive branches for the Senate to confirm.
If he needs another reason not to run, there is the fact that he would turn 78 on June 14, 2024, well before the end of a second term. That's too old, he could say, as unconcerned about accusations of ageism as any other form of political correctness.
Meanwhile, he can concern-tweet the liberal folk of Vermont, among the whitest states in the union, and since Hyde-Smith's victory the only one never to elect a woman to Congress. Sad.
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