Welcome back in, however weary from the long night, for Al’s Afternoon Tea.

Has it sunk in yet that Donald Trump has been re-elected? Or that he’s only the second U.S. president to be elected to nonconsecutive terms? Has the magnitude of his victory sunk in yet? Did anyone wake up wondering if it somehow got reversed again in the wee hours?

And the hardest question of all: Do we call him President-Elect Trump or just keep calling him President Trump? That’s the kind of thing you wonder when you’ve been up for nearly 24 hours covering Election Day.

I also wonder who else felt a compulsion to go to McDonald’s in honor of Trump’s victory.

The Stream has some cogent analysis of the election to offer from some of our other contributors. But for the moment, I’ve just got random thoughts.

“Underperformed”

As I mentioned during our coverage last night, the word we kept hearing (and are hearing again today) is “underperformed.” Kamala Harris underperformed Joe Biden’s 2020 race across the board. Nobody can say Biden wouldn’t have tanked compared to 2020. But nobody would blame him if he rubbed it in the faces of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi that he was, indeed, a better candidate than Harris, dementia and all.

There’s another way to look at this “underperformance” business.

Harris has gotten roughly 15 million less votes than Joe Biden supposedly did, and is in line with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 numbers. Trump is roughly at the amount he was at in 2020. So where did the 15 million votes go?

Was Harris that much less popular than Biden –or as Dinesh D’Souza suggests, is this evidence that Biden never did get 81 million legitimate votes?

Kamala got 60 million votes in 2024. Does anyone really believe Biden got 80 million in 2020? Where did those 20 million Democratic voters go? The truth is, they never existed. I think we can put the lie about Biden’s 80 million votes to rest once and for all

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) November 6, 2024

While we’re talking about Biden, do you think Trump will be sending him some Harry & David in thanks for all he did to help him in the final weeks of the campaign? It’s the least he could do.

In a more serious vein, who wants to bet that Trump quickly pardons Hunter Biden for the drug and gun charges?

Trump Going Right to Work. He’s Been Preparing for Four Years

Since there is little evidence Trump ever sleeps, he will no doubt hit the ground running in January. Even if close to half the country still thinks he’s Hitler, can they at least admit the guy is a physical marvel? Word is that Trump only got about half an hour sleep after his marathon day of campaigning Monday. Yet at 2:00 this morning, he was up on stage with is (sort of) victory speech, as if he could go on for hours.

Trump’s been assembling his next administration, probably since 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2021, with a transition team that’s long been in place. He also rejected federal assistance in the transition, not wanting to risk any repeats of agents, spies, and saboteurs being imbedded into the transition or administration.

The question now becomes who from his assembled dream team will go where? We’ll have thoughts on that in the coming days. 

Another Security Concern

We cannot think for a second that the threats on Donald Trump’s life — both from foreign hostiles and domestic ones — have diminished with his victory. These are some desperate and dangerous people. We must keep our prayers of protection up for him and his family.

But because we have no desire to dwell on the dark stuff today, seeing Barron Trump on stage with his father this morning brought another security concern to mind.

The White House doesn’t have to just be worried about the Leftist loons who want to scale the White House fence. They’ve also got to worry about the teenage girls. You see Barron now? Tall and smart and rich? They’re gonna chase after him like he’s a Beatle in 1964 London.

The Fears of Retribution

Naturally, the liberal media is having an utter meltdown over Trump’s victory. (Though I can guarantee you, writers for the late night shows are thoroughly excited at the news. Imagine if they woke up to word they had to write jokes about Kamala Harris for the next four years. Believe me. For comedy writers — and the bean counters at MSNBC and CNN — this is Christmas Day.)

One of the key worries is the idea that Trump will seek “retribution” against these people. As if he is going to order the FBI to drag Whoopi Goldberg off the set the way Biden’s DOJ drags pro-life advocates from their homes.

NBC's panel is talking about retribution. "The open question" this morning, @kwelkernbc says, is "will he go after his political rivals, legally? What specifically does that look like?"

"He has supporters who would like to see that," @LesterHoltNBC notes

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 6, 2024

A couple points: As the election showed, these media figures just aren’t that important. “The loser (traditional news media) is nothing,” as Prince Humperdink might have said. “Only the princess matters.”

Trump insists success will be his revenge. That’s a nice line, but easy to dismiss if you don’t believe he means it. I’d ask those nervous souls to think about it for a minute. Donald Trump was banned by Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, the whole lot of them. Did he get revenge? Yes. He did it by creating Truth Social — and ending up with hundreds of millions more dollars in his bank account.

The Amish Help Deliver Pennsylvania in Their Horse-Drawn Carriages

Although we don’t know the exact numbers yet, partial credit for Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania has to go to the Amish. They have traditionally not gotten involved in politics. However, this time out they turned out for Trump.

According to the New York Post, the Amish interest in voting this year in “unprecedented numbers” was ignited by the feds’ January 4 raid of Amos Miller’s raw milk farm in Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania.

“That was their impetus for them to say, ‘We need to participate,’” a source told the Post. “This is about neighbors helping neighbors.”  

And while we’re saluting the devout, let’s end with this …

“How Great Thou Art”

Early this morning, after Trump delivered his remarks, the crowd broke out into song. Not “YMCA,” or “Hold On, I’m Coming,” but “How Great Thou Art.” The clip has gone viral.

https://twitter.com/DavidJHarrisJr/status/1854085708987723969

This election truly was between those who welcome Christ and those who wish to banish Him from American public life. Harris snidely saying, “You’re at the wrong rally” and blowing off the Al Smith dinner (on the same night) made that crystal clear.

God makes no bones about it: “For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” (1 Samuel 2:30)

With this promise, we can expect good things ahead.

God bless the U.S.A.

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.