Voters to Trump: ‘You’re Fired!’

Democrats earned a victory. Now they have to earn the trust.

Listening to Mike Murphy on Hacks on Tap this morning, I heard the headline for this essay: “Voters to Trump: You’re fired!” For a man who built a television career around those words, there is something satisfying about hearing them delivered from the other side of the desk. Trump still has his job, of course. But voters have delivered a performance review, and he won’t be hanging this one on the wall.

In my last essay, “The Red Undertow,” I argued that this election was more a withdrawal of support from Trump than an embrace of everything Democrats were selling. I’m sticking with that interpretation. Democrats are entitled to celebrate. I’m relieved, too. But before everyone gets gooey-eyed about a political awakening, let’s be clear-eyed and consider a less flattering explanation: people have had enough of Trump. Finally.

Enough of the lies, braggadocio, insults, and daily search for somebody to humiliate. Enough of a president whose understanding of public service seems inseparable from what benefits his family. For ten years, Americans have been asked to live inside this man’s narcissistic personality. His grievances arrive with breakfast. By dinner, we are supposed to be outraged about whatever offended him that afternoon. Even people who supported his policies could want off the ride.

Then there is the cruelty. The mockery of a disabled reporter. The sneering at John McCain’s captivity. The attack on a Gold Star mother. Vulnerability, service, and grief offered no protection when somebody offended him. Now consider what happens when that contempt is backed by the machinery of government and directed at undocumented immigrants. You can support secure borders and enforcement of immigration laws and still be appalled by how this government treats people. Reuters found that the death rate in immigration detention more than doubled under Trump. These are human beings in government custody. Their treatment is a measure of the government holding them.

Immigration enforcement requires judgment, due process, and humanity. Instead, we have been asked to applaud intimidation and accept suffering as evidence that somebody is getting tough. The administration calls it enforcement. Too often, it looks like a bunch of poorly trained macho thugs in search of a target. We wanted the border secured, but did we really vote for masked federal agents terrorizing communities, conducting aggressive street operations, and leaving American citizens among the dead? The fear reaches entire families and communities, including people who are here legally. Wanting an orderly immigration system does not require surrendering basic decency.

Then come the tariffs: the threats, uncertainty, and bills arriving here at home. Trump sells it as economic strength while consumers pay more and businesses try to plan around his next confusing announcement. His combative trade policies have raised consumer prices. Apparently, making America great requires making it more expensive to live here.

And the war with Iran. As I discussed in “The Red Undertow,” the regime’s brutality does not relieve an American president of the responsibility to explain his objectives, plan for the consequences, build public support, and articulate a credible way to end the fighting. Where is the evidence of that leadership? Americans absorb the costs while the administration alternates between negotiations and threats of escalation. Disrupted Gulf energy supplies have driven up fuel prices far beyond the battlefield.

Meanwhile, relations with our allies have steadily worsened. Partnerships built over generations face Trump’s transactional bullying. Trust accumulated over decades is being spent as though it were another asset he owns. Treating allies as delinquent tenants is a poor substitute for leadership.

In the Hacks on Tap podcast, Murphy also had a line about Republicans’ response to the results: “The whole Republican Party has turned into Melania now. You know, how do I get away from this guy with a decent divorce settlement?”

A little late to discover the marriage was troubled. Republicans who enabled Trump should have to answer for their own decisions. But if some are now willing to cooperate in serious oversight and repair, Democrats should give them that opportunity. Their usefulness will depend on what they are prepared to do, beyond putting distance between themselves and an unpopular president.

Put it all together: cruelty, higher costs, a grinding war, and damaged alliances. Trump’s behavior carried consequences people could feel in their lives. Basically, he acted like an asshole to so many people for so long that, on November 3, a tidal wave of voters threw up their middle fingers and said “Enough”. That was the red undertow. But Democrats should be careful about mistaking that rejection for ideological devotion.

This midterm election reminds me of 1974. Nixon had resigned, but Watergate helped make it a punishing year to run as a Republican. Democrats swept to a congressional landslide. The circumstances differ. Trump remains in office, but the comparison raises a useful question: how much were voters endorsing the opposition, and how much were they passing judgment on those in charge? A landslide can look like an embrace when it is really an eviction notice.

Democrats should resist treating this result as an endorsement of every idea in their platform. Many voters may have wanted competent government, lower costs, and relief from the ugliness more than ideological transformation. The fuller analysis will take time. Some humility about why they won would serve Democrats, and the country, well.

Which brings me back to the question in “The Red Undertow”: What’s next?

There is an old job at the circus: following the elephant with a shovel and a bucket. Democrats might want to familiarize themselves with the equipment because the orange man-child and his sycophants have left a considerable pile. Cleanup includes restoring both order and humanity to immigration enforcement, reclaiming congressional authority over trade and war, scrutinizing conflicts between public office and family business, and rebuilding confidence among allies.

Trump still controls the executive branch. Democrats must use Congress’s powers: oversight, appropriations, legislation, and forcing public answers. They owe voters an honest account of what they can accomplish. They must also make room for governing alongside investigations. People worried about household bills need more than the satisfaction of watching a cabinet secretary squirm.

Accountability is essential. National healing cannot rest on an agreement to look away. Robert Garcia, poised to lead House Oversight, greeted the results with “Lawyer up.” I understand the impulse. I just don’t want the impulse running the investigation. Follow the money. Obtain documents. Compel testimony. Establish who benefited and who paid. Where evidence warrants consequences, pursue them through the appropriate constitutional and legal processes.

Do it without fear or favor. Investigators must accept facts that complicate their assumptions, or implicate their own side. Trump will call any inquiry a witch hunt. Democrats can make that charge harder to sustain through fair procedures, careful work, and understandable findings.

Every hearing need not become a cable television audition. Every revelation need not generate a fundraising email before the witness leaves. The purpose is to establish truth and make abuses harder to repeat. The standards must survive the next change of party control.

Meanwhile, the country needs to begin living together again. That requires welcoming people who voted for Trump and are reconsidering. Demanding a public confession and ten years of apologies strikes me as a poor recruitment strategy. People change their minds reluctantly. It helps to have somewhere to go.

We need a functioning political middle: Americans who disagree about taxes, immigration, health care, and foreign policy while respecting each other’s right to participate. People who accept election losses and limits on their own side’s power. Basic decency would make those disagreements easier to work through.

A hard core of Trump loyalists is not going anywhere. Recovery cannot depend on persuading every last one. But plenty of Americans are reachable. They may hold mixed political views, dislike both parties, or simply want competent government and fewer fights. They deserve a place in the conversation.

Democrats have an opportunity to build that coalition by listening beyond their base, respecting differences, and delivering results. Voters handed them power to check Trump, investigate his administration, and begin repairing the damage. They have work to do, and a very full bucket.

“You’re fired” was the verdict. Trust will have to be earned.