Democrats' election wins send message to Trump, GOP: You are the literal worst | Opinion

So it turns out that President Donald Trump posting a video of himself dumping poop on Americans was not a winning electoral strategy for the Republican Party.

Dispatching roving gangs of masked federal agents to cities across America and giving them carte blanche to grab whomever they want while tossing tear gas at anyone who doesn’t like it? Also not a real vote winner, apparently.

The massive blue wave of Democratic victories in the Nov. 4 election sent a straightforward message to Trump and his circling-the-drain Republican colleagues: You all are, quite literally, the worst.

Trump and his policies are unpopular, so voters responded in kind

Polling had already shown how much Americans broadly dislike everything the Trump administration is doing. But in the first election of Trump’s second term in office, voters in red, blue and purple states made clear they aren’t buying the smug cruelty and king-like behavior the president and his lackeys are selling.

In the most high-profile races – for mayor of New York City and governors of Virginia and New Jersey – Democrats fended off millions of right-wing dollars and relentless Islamophobic and anti-transgender fearmongering to win all three offices convincingly.

Californians overwhelmingly voted for a plan to redraw congressional districts in a way that could give Democrats five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, a counter to Republican-friendly redistricting in Texas.

But the electoral repudiation of Trumpism ran far deeper than the big races.

It was an across-the-board blue wave for Democrats

In Maine, voters rejected a conservative-backed ballot measure that would have sharply restricted voting access.

In Georgia, as The Associated Press reported: “Two Democrats romped to wins over Republican incumbents in elections to the Georgia Public Service Commission on Tuesday, delivering the largest statewide margins of victory by Democrats in more than 20 years.”

In deep red Mississippi, Democrats broke a 13-year GOP supermajority in the state Senate, flipping two seats.

Democratic candidates in South Carolina fully flipped the Georgetown City Council, taking all the seats. In Orlando, Florida, voters booted the last GOP City Council member and voted in a Democrat.

Turns out being a cruel jerk doesn't win over American voters

This is the kind of ballot-box walloping that’s earned, highlighting the simple fact that Trump has gone to great lengths to anger and outrage Americans since his second term started in January.

Consider this multitudinous array of deceptions, blunders and outrageous acts:

After promising to lower food prices and inflation on Day 1, food prices are increasing and inflation has risen every month since April and is now higher than it was in January.

The U.S. government is in its longest-ever shutdown because Republicans want to do away with Affordable Care Act subsidies and Democrats won’t agree. Health insurance premiums are skyrocketing, and now food aid is in limbo because the Trump administration is delaying funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, putting millions of Americans in danger of going hungry.

Trump's king-like behavior is costing Republicans big time

Trump has decided he’s free to order the military to bomb boats in South American waters without providing any evidence that the boats are carrying drugs or “narco-terrorists.”

Trump is using the Justice Department to aggressively go after his political enemies.

There was the aforementioned poop video, and the fact that Trump – who technically represents all Americans – routinely speaks of those who disagree with him as radicals, fools or people who don’t matter. On Election Day, Trump posted this combination antisemitic/Islamophobic nonsense on Truth Social: “Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self-professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!”

Helping billionaires and hurting everyone else isn't a winning strategy

The night before SNAP benefits expired, Trump posted a slew of photos showing off his fancy marble remodel of the Lincoln Bathroom, then he attended a "Great Gatsby"-themed Halloween party at his Florida resort.

Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House to make room for a massive ballroom that nobody asked for, thumbing his nose at the optics of desecrating a historic building and erecting a monument to opulence while Americans struggle to afford meat.

The GOP has secured tax cuts for billionaires while slashing Medicaid and putting a squeeze on rural hospitals.

And then there are the masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol agents snatching up both immigrants and U.S. citizens, shooting pepper balls at priests and journalists, and generally bringing shame to the federal government.

This election showed that MAGA is not America. Not even close.

None of this is popular. None of this has made any regular American’s life better. None of this has brought down grocery bills, made housing more affordable or provided better health insurance.

Perhaps a president who gleefully shows off a video of himself wearing a crown and flying a jet that drops poop on the heads of protesting Americans is a cool thing inside the MAGA bubble. Maybe anti-transgender hate and cruelty against immigrants bring the good kind of tingle to a small subset of the population.

But as the Nov. 4 blue wave demonstrated, most Americans don’t find Trump’s childishness cool. They don’t get off on cruelty. And they aren’t, in any way, shape or form, feeling the good kind of tingle.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk