How Trump’s Win Is Explained by Right and Left Media Outlets

Media outlets across the political spectrum offered very different explanations about why Donald J. Trump won the presidential election this week.

On the right, some media outlets said Mr. Trump had won because of the left’s embrace of what they called extreme political views, while others focused on how Americans were deeply dissatisfied with the economy under President Biden, which Vice President Kamala Harris defended.

Outlets on the left were more divided in their explanations. Some said American voters had chosen to “burn it all to the ground” by choosing Mr. Trump. Others blamed the Democratic Party as a whole, arguing that Democrats had failed to connect with voters on key issues, and that Ms. Harris had lost by defending what those commentators saw as a broken system.

Here’s how a few outlets have covered the last few days in political news:

FROM THE RIGHT

Breitbart

Breitbart, a conservative outlet, highlighted that Americans were upset with how Democrats had handled the economy, and argued that Mr. Trump’s victory was a “mandate for Trumponomics.”

In one article, the reporter John Carney ticked through what he saw as the reasons behind Mr. Trump’s victory. He pointed to the costs of basic necessities like groceries, housing and health care, all of which had soared over the last four years, as well as fears surrounding high levels of immigration. Americans, in Mr. Carney’s view, wanted “less inflation, more economic nationalism and an economy they could feel great about again.”

“The presidential election, in other words, was in significant part an economic referendum in which voters chose Trump and his economic policies,” Mr. Carney wrote.

FROM THE RIGHT

The Daily Wire

The Daily Wire was one of many conservative outlets to point to transgender rights as a reason that Democrats lost the election. Throughout the election, Mr. Trump’s campaign attacked Ms. Harris for her support of trans rights, including one prominent ad that featured her saying that “every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access” to gender-affirming surgery.

Messaging like that ad, wrote Mary Margaret Olohan, a senior reporter for The Daily Wire, helped win Mr. Trump the race. Ms. Olohan wrote that Americans “rejected far-left transgender ideology and the candidate who embraced these radical positions.”

“Donald Trump and his campaign effectively used her remarks to show the American people how out of touch she was on this topic,” Ms. Olohan wrote.

Ben Shapiro, a co-founder of The Daily Wire, said Ms. Harris was “an empty vessel” who did not inspire voters, on a live version of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” after Mr. Trump prevailed. But voters did not reject just Ms. Harris, in Mr. Shapiro’s view: It was the last four years of Democratic rule.

“It was about a return to normalcy,” Mr. Shapiro said. “You feel more normal this morning.”

FROM THE LEFT

‘Pod Save America’

“Pod Save America,” a liberal podcast hosted by former members of President Barack Obama’s staff, aired an hourlong episode after the election focused on what, in their view, went wrong for Ms. Harris.

According to Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama, Ms. Harris faced an uphill battle because of her truncated campaign.

“He’s been running for almost 10 years straight, and she had to mount a campaign in 109 days,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “And the country shifted to the right across the board.”

Jon Favreau, another host of the show, said Democrats had to rethink their strategy. They cannot, he said, keep defending “a broken system” that many Americans want to see improved.

“Donald Trump and his folks want to burn it down,” Mr. Favreau said. “We should at least be the party that doesn’t want to burn the system down, but wants to fix it and wants to reform it.”

FROM THE LEFT

The Nation

Elie Mystal, a correspondent for The Nation, a liberal outlet, wrote that Mr. Trump had won because the country had proved itself “to be a fetid, violent people,” and that America “deserves to get what it wants” for electing him.

“We had a chance to stand united against fascism, authoritarianism, racism and bigotry, but we did not,” Mr. Mystal wrote.

Other writers for the site blamed the Democratic Party. Jeet Heer, a correspondent for The Nation, wrote that Ms. Harris had lost because Democrats were stuck in the past in a country that “desperately wants change.”

“To a self-destructive degree, Harris tied herself to the policies of Joe Biden, an unpopular incumbent,” Mr. Heer wrote. “This gave Trump an easy pathway to again be the voice of dissatisfaction and change.”

FROM THE LEFT

Mother Jones

Mother Jones, a liberal site, struck a dour tone after Mr. Trump’s victory.

David Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, wrote that the United States had met its “judgment day” by electing Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Corn described as “the first fascist and the first convicted felon to win an American presidential election.”

“A judgment has been reached: This is a nation to be ruled by Trump’s politics of hate,” Mr. Corn wrote.

Michael Mechanic, a senior editor for Mother Jones, wrote that Mr. Trump had won because of wealth inequality. Even though the economy seemed to be booming under Mr. Biden, “those on the losing end of our thriving economy don’t see it as thriving,” Mr. Mechanic wrote.

“In courting Americans who, fairly or not, feel like the system has never done them a bit of good, Team Trump has the rhetorical advantage, because he says he’ll destroy that system,” Mr. Mechanic said.