The 2016 presidential election was among the closest in U.S. history. If Hillary Clinton had won just 78,000 more votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, she would be president right now. How did Donald Trump squeak out his victory, and what does it mean for the future of politics in America?
Salena Zito, co-author with Brad Todd of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping America Politics, has strong opinions on the matter. The Great Revolt is based on a poll of Trump backers in Midwestern swing states and hundreds of interviews with voters in the Rust Belt. Zito, a veteran, Pittsburgh-based journalist who writes for The New York Post and is a contributor at CNN, believes that Trump benefited from a rising tide of anger at elites and “bigness” in politics and business. The people who voted for Trump in 2016 (and, in many cases, for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012) aren’t going anywhere, Zito says, and they have the potential to shape national politics for years to come. In a conversation with Nick Gillespie, Zito talks about the different sorts of Trump voters and their core values.
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Audio production by Ian Keyser.
Photo credit: Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press/Newscom
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