People vote with their hip pockets. As an Australian American living back in Australia these days, I watched the US election results unfold with disbelief but also with clarity on a few things. The economy trumps (sorry) everything.

If you don’t have a job and can’t buy groceries; if your cost of living is rising while your wage is stagnant; or if you think foreigners are succeeding while you’re struggling, apparently you vote for a trust fund billionaire with The Apprentice credits over a pro-choice woman of colour without an economic solution you can relate to.

The prospect of a better economic future than Americans feel they have now was enough to get people to the polls, and for them to overlook Trump’s dirty track record.

Remember, he’s the guy who incited insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021; lied; bullied; politicised the Justice Department and the FBI; abused the pardon power; obstructed investigations; fired whistleblowers and truth tellers; profited from his presidency by refusing to divest from his international business empire; cosied up to dictators; and has worn countless accusations of sexual impropriety, among other cons.

But here we are. It’s the economy. stupid, a phrase coined by Jim Carville, a strategist in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 US presidential election.

With all the commentary on the latest election, it became apparent that no-one in Washington is fired for spending too much (moreso for spending too little) and no one votes for a Scrooge. Notably, the word ‘spending’ came up only three times in the Trump/Harris debate, and even then it was only associated with Ukraine.

It’s always easy to see things in retrospect: the economy was always going to hold the key.