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Liberal New York Times columnist Ezra Klein declared in a piece published on Sunday that the “vibe shift” towards President Donald Trump was “dead” and said Democrats could start winning the “attention wars.”
“The Trump vibe shift is dead. And there are already glimmers of what will follow it,” he wrote. “A year ago, we kept hearing that Trump was cool now. Is anyone saying that now?”
Klein wrote in a column in January that Trump’s cultural victory lapped his political victory, and pointed to the president’s success on social media in the 2024 campaign. He wrote at the time, “I suspect we are at or near the peak of Trump vibes.”
In his Sunday column, Klein pointed to Trump’s popularity decline over economic concerns and to Democratic victories in several off-year elections.
REPUBLICAN POPULISM CRATERS AS TRUMP STUMBLES, DEMOCRATS SURGE
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and Democratic socialist New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani all won elections in November focused on economic anxiety and affordability issues. All were favored to win their races in blue-leaning states and areas, but the Democratic sweep nationwide still left Republicans reeling.
“Now Trumpism is failing both the voters and the vibes. It is failing the voters in the most obvious of ways: Trump ran for office promising lower prices. But he also ran on policies — tariffs and deportations — that raise prices by driving up the costs of goods and labor. Nor did Trump try to persuade Americans that they should bear higher prices to subsidize domestic manufacturing or raise native-born wages or to isolate China,” Klein wrote.
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Klein argued that Trump lied to voters and expressed hope that Democrats could start winning the “attention wars.”
“A year ago, Democrats understood MSNBC and The Washington Post but seemed flummoxed by YouTube and TikTok. But younger and less terminally cautious Democrats — Zohran Mamdani in New York City, James Talarico in Texas, Gavin Newsom in California — are showing that Democrats can win the attention wars,” he wrote.
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He pointed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast conversations with unlikely guests in the last year, such as Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.
“Political backlash always seeks the opposing force to the present regime. Closed and cruel are on their way out. What comes next, I suspect, will present itself as open, friendly and assertively moral. But it will also need to credibly offer what Trump and Trumpism have failed to deliver: real solutions to the problems Americans face,” Klein concluded.
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