EDITORIAL: Yes, it was the economy, stupid

Economic anxiety motivated many Americans on Tuesday, and the result was a dominating performance by Donald Trump and a resounding repudiation of Bidenomics. Not surprisingly, markets soared in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Trump’s election.

The carnage of 9 percent inflation under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris left voters of diverse interests reeling from soaring prices for basic goods and services. Add the chaos at the southern border under this administration, along with relentless woke overreach, and Mr. Trump was able to attract significant support from minority voters, a traditional Democratic constituency.

Many Latino voters, The Wall Street Journal noted, have traditional working class concerns and “worry about the cost of living, want a strong economy, think too many people are crossing the border without permission and don’t think social issues like gender identity are paramount.”

Imagine that.

Mr. Trump also had the advantage of previously serving four years in the White House. The economy during his tenure was relatively healthy until the pandemic hit in early 2020. He cut taxes for virtually all Americans and attacked the overactive federal administrative state. Polls show most Americans felt they were better off under Mr. Trump than they were under Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris. Voters felt the country was headed in the wrong direction — always an ill harbinger for the party holding the Oval Office.

There was a “wide disconnect between official government data showing an increasingly robust economy and persistent pessimism among Americans,” the Journal reported last week. “While Democrats touted the economy’s strength, many voters said the economy as they knew it was broken.”

Mr. Trump faces many challenges as he prepares to again settle in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, not the least of which will be the unstable international order created by the feckless foreign policy of the Harris-Biden team. Most Americans, however, will be watching what he does domestically to shore up border security and to promote a climate of prosperity, opportunity and entrepreneurship.

Mr. Trump’s victory, coupled with GOP control of the Senate and likely the House, means the 2017 tax bill — due to expire next year — will certainly be renewed. The president-elect has also vowed to pick up where he left off with regulatory reform. These are both positive developments.

Mr. Trump’s first term saw higher deficits, adding significantly to the debt. But he now proposes to appoint Elon Musk as the “secretary of cost-cutting” to attack government inefficiencies. Let’s hope this welcome move signals a commitment to fiscal sanity. For his part, Mr. Musk — who has a long history of restraining costs in his private-sector endeavors — has signaled a willingness to pare the scope of federal bureaucracies.

“If Congress has created an agency, then often, if you look at the law … the agency has a very simple task, but then that agency over time vastly increases its authority,” he said on Joe Rogan’s podcast last week, “and starts doing things that were never authorized by Congress.”

It would be encouraging to see Mr. Trump — who will be a lame duck when he enters office in January — take a similar approach with entitlement spending, perhaps through a proposed bipartisan fiscal commission to identify tax and spending policies that will put the nation on a more sustainable fiscal course.

Progressives have spent the past five days pointing fingers while hiding in the darkness as they contemplate the next four years and vow to formulate the “resistance.” That’s democracy. But they would also be wise to ponder how they got so far out of touch with average Americans simply seeking to improve their fortunes and go about their lives in a safe and secure environment while preserving this proud nation’s promise and hope for their children and grandchildren.