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James Matthewson showed up to Across The Pond with an American flag draped over his shoulders. He had been up until 4:30 am doing BBC coverage, and on his drive through Edinburgh, he spotted three American flags hanging out of windows. He said he had never seen that outside of a World Cup.
Then he said the thing that framed our whole conversation: This was the appropriate response of a nation to what Trump and the people around him had done to it.
James pointed out that countries don’t always get it right, citing Brexit and years of Conservative government in Britain. This time, a majority of Americans looked at the depravity being unleashed and collectively said, “hell no.”
I wanted to start by pulling people back to where we were. A year and a half ago, every time I said Trump’s overreach would backfire, people told me we weren’t even going to have midterms. Instead of an authoritarian takeover, Democrats flipped North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina, reaching 54 Senate seats with Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled. Charles and I had guessed 53 on our Common Power pod, and we thought we were being bold.
I argued that Americans got an unchecked Trump this time, with his authoritarianism turned up to 100, and they felt it. I also noted how different this felt from 2020. Back then, the celebration deflated when Trump went into coup mode. This time he called several news organizations sounding defeated, saying he would accept the results. The win was too big to rig.
I asked James whether this win could start to repair how our allies see us. All year, we’ve talked about how they lost faith in America as a reliable partner. James said that’s exactly what’s happening. He listed the damage Trump has done abroad: the betrayal of Ukraine and Europe, threats to invade sovereign allied territory, and threats to treaties that took a century to build. He said he got emotional watching people place “I Voted” stickers at the sites where Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and other victims of ICE were killed. To him, it showed the world that the madness has an end. Europe wants to know America will be there when Russia threatens its security, and the American people just proved they can steer the West back on course.
James wanted to talk about the talent, and so did I. I made my case for Jon Ossoff as my 2028 frontrunner. He ran up roughly 18 points in Georgia and helped elect Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor. James heard Ossoff speak for the first time on election night and said he has the American poster-boy polish without the cringe. As a self-described militant atheist, James was also won over by James Talarico. He called Talarico a teacher and Ossoff a leader. I said Talarico is doing what Dr. King asked of political leaders, leading with faith and moral clarity while still taking on the top of the K-shaped economy. We also ran through a remarkable list of firsts, from Abdul El-Sayed as the first Muslim elected to the Senate to Deb Haaland as the first Native American woman elected governor.
The cultural shift may be the biggest story of the night. Exit polls show young men 18 to 29 swinging 38 points toward Democrats from 2024. Trump also lost Latinos, young voters overall, white non-college voters, and white women. James credited young women, who increasingly refused to date men whose politics threatened their rights. He also argued that Elon Musk became a mainstream symbol of being a loser, spending big and getting nothing back. I said we need to return to a culture where holding fascist views makes you uncomfortable. If you think a group of people doesn’t deserve freedom or dignity, you should be seen as the loser you are.
Then we turned to what comes next. I said Democrats have a mandate, pointing to an exit poll where 71% of voters said there was not enough of a check on the Trump administration. My message to the new Democratic majority is simple: don’t work with this man. Hobble his administration with subpoenas and probes. Force Republicans onto the record with votes on tariffs and the Epstein files.
James also wants full accountability for everything from the Epstein files to the crypto and other grifts, and he said Democrats will deserve blame if they squander the moment. He hopes the party stays united on taking Trumpism apart so thoroughly that Republicans have to reform themselves around moderate conservatism.
Lindsey Graham warned in 2016 that Trump would destroy his party and that they’d deserve it. I said that’s exactly what happened. We avoided the worst-case authoritarian catastrophe. So celebrate this week. Then it’s back to work.
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