In the last stretch of the 2024 presidential election season, Donald Trump made it clearer than ever that he was pitting the fate of his entire movement against the military-industrial complex and the violence of war.

There has rightly been plenty of talk about the political “realignments” Trumpism has brought about. These historic shifts have resulted in a new populist right that champions the worker, the migrant, and the poor on the one hand and an authoritarian political left that threatens censorship, fines, and imprisonment on behalf of a decadent elite on the other.

But the most significant realignment has been a realignment toward peace — a shift that invites the participation of all, from the great innovator and tech mogul Elon Musk and his peers in Silicon Valley to the most recent Muslim migrant worker plying a humble trade in the American Midwest.

The Democratic ticket, meanwhile, championed the establishment that authored the wars and genocides of the past two decades — all while fresh off of a catastrophic abandonment of Afghanistan that left thousands of friends and allies at the mercy of the Taliban.
That’s the realignment that not only motivated American Christians, military families, and business owners, but also drove historic numbers of Latino, Arab, and Somali voters to Trump.

Trump Reached Out to the Marginalized

Trump made many significant gestures of solidarity in the last months leading up to his stunning victory on November 5. And they were more than just gestures; they were principled and noble vows that meant all the more for the fact that he staked his chances at the ballot box on them.

He offered his friendship — and the friendship of the United States government under his now-incoming administration — to the suffering Palestinians of Gaza. He offered the same friendship to the people of Israel, even as the state’s unpopular current officials like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engage in actions against Gaza’s women and children that Trump vowed to confront and put to a stop.

Trump offered friendship to the peoples of Iran and Lebanon — while also calling out the escalatory rhetoric of Iranian and Lebanese leaders who seem as eager for global conflict as Netanyahu in Israel and Washington elites in the U.S.

As I wrote just days before Election Day:

Of course, to the political establishment that profits by what Trump calls the “forever wars,” the violent deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian children just in the last year mean nothing. But the suffering of Gaza — the bombings of churches, the women and girls killed by Israel Defense Forces snipers, the Israeli government’s obstruction of aid trucks to tend to the wounded and the starving — it means everything to the good-hearted people of America, and especially to our young and minority voters.

In fact, what is rising up now among American voters is what might be called the Gaza Generation. And just like distancing ourselves from the post-9/11 actions of the military-industrial complex has become a litmus test for office in the Republican Party today, denouncing Israel’s violence against Palestinians will soon become a litmus test too. And, again, thanks to Trumpism, I believe the Gaza Generation will hold every major figure in public life to that litmus test, including candidates of both major parties.

For Trump, the world isn’t a war of all against all where America competes thoughtlessly against adversaries over resources. He has no interest in a chaotic, unpredictable, multipolar world of tense competitions and skirmishes between greedy nations and their proxies throughout the Middle East. His program is to “Make America Great Again” in a unipolar, stable world stage where vulnerable people — and their governments — have reason to trust our leadership and look to it as an upholder of shared interests.

A Global Mandate for Human Decency and Freedom

Meanwhile, at home, Trump also built a coalition of lifelong Democrats like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the heroic military veteran Tulsi Gabbard, as well as all-American entertainers and sportsmen like Dr. Phil, Joe Rogan, Brett Favre, and Harrison Butker. Trump also drew in the support of committed pro-lifers like Lila Rose and the team at CatholicVote — moral voices who had proved willing to speak out against missteps.

In the end, by the time of his election victory this week, Trump had built up a global mandate centered on the dignity and worth of every human person — especially when he or she is most urgently under threat.

And never are human beings more under threat than when they live in a time ripe for global thermonuclear war.

That possibility is real — a prospect that could at any moment make every person, to quote Winston Churchill, “equal in misery” — from the bombed-out shelter in Gaza to the post-nuclear suburban home in Virginia.

The arrival of a second Trump administration on the global scene could not come at a more opportune time to quell the devastation just waiting to be unleashed by the recklessness of world leaders over the past four years.

Because America has not just elected Trump. Thanks to his outspokenness on behalf of the would-be victims of war, Trump’s supporters have just delivered a global peace mandate.

Jason Jones is a senior contributor to The Stream. He is a film producer, activist, and human rights worker. He is also the author of three books, the latest of which is The Great Campaign Against the Great Reset.