Columnist offers coping advice for ‘incomprehensible reality’ of second Trump term

Donald Trump’s election night victory was “solid” and like it or not, he’s returning to the White House on Inauguration Day 2025, but that doesn’t mean you have to let the former president “back in your head,” according to a Washington Post columnist who offered tips on how to deal with the “incomprehensible reality.”

The first step is understanding what just happened, columnist Eugene Robinson wrote Wednesday, noting that the kneejerk reaction for many who opposed Trump’s candidacy to emigrate to Canada, New Zealand or Uruguay is not only unfeasible for most people, the "same far-right nationalism that Trump embodies" is also "afflicting countries around the world.”

He added that Trump’s slight leads in the all-important battleground states were due to him convincing a plurality of voters that he would be a “champion of their interests." He also broke down exit poll numbers that showed African Americans and Latinos didn’t show up for Harris with the force expected.

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“I realize all these numbers are not particularly soothing,” Robinson wrote Tuesday for the Post. “But coping with a situation has to begin with looking it in the face. Despite everything, Trump managed to broaden his support this time around. We may not understand that, but we have to accept it as fact.”

Refraining from second-guessing decisions the vice president’s campaign made is the second step, the columnist suggested, adding that Harris not only “staged a flawless convention” and “embarrassed” Trump at their only debate, but she also headed a vast field operation in just 3 ½ months, and raised more than a billion dollars.

Finally, he added, coming to terms “with the role misogyny and racism played in Harris’s defeat” is important to moving forward.

“It is unfair that Americans chose someone like Donald Trump over someone like Kamala Harris, and I fear the nation and the world will regret that decision,” Robinson wrote. He told readers that while he is “angry and frustrated” he wasn’t going to spend time “stewing” about it.

“I’m going to find a better politics-life balance and catch myself when I start obsessing over the latest outrage,” he wrote.