In what may be the greatest political comeback in U.S. history, former president Donald J. Trump will return to the White House. Mr. Trump won back the presidency in the contest against Vice President Kamala Harris, who had a short three months to make her case to the American people.
Mr. Trump’s pursuit of the presidency was mired in four indictments. He will become the first person convicted of a felony to take the office. The House of Representatives also impeached Mr. Trump twice during his previous term, and he has been called a fascist by some who worked with him during his previous administration.
Nevertheless, with a campaign that decried inflation and promised immigration crackdowns, Mr. Trump captured enough votes to reclaim the Oval Office.
“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us. It’s time to unite,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of supporters gathered at a convention center in West Palm Beach after some news outlets called the race in his favor. “We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it.”
The call to unity may be premature given the tenor of the campaign. What are some pertinent takeaways to a Catholic audience?
Immigration
Much like in his previous presidential campaigns, Mr. Trump again emphasized immigration enforcement. This time, he vowed to deport 10 million undocumented immigrants if elected. During his only debate with Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump claimed Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump focused on stories of violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants rather than the causes that drive migrants north and the contribution they make to American society.
For decades, the U.S. bishops have advocated on behalf of immigrants. Their Justice for Immigrants campaign seeks to create “a culture of welcome in which all migrants are treated with respect and dignity.”
Climate change
When it comes to climate change, Mr. Trump is—if nothing else—skeptical. In 2009, as a private citizen, Mr. Trump expressed support for efforts to curb climate change, but in 2014 he called global warming an “expensive hoax.”
When asked about climate change during his debate with Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump ignored the question and instead spoke about manufacturing jobs. During his three-hour interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Mr. Trump reluctantly acknowledged concerns about the environment but quickly pivoted.
“Look, I had, during our four years, we had the cleanest air and the cleanest water,” he said. “I view it differently. I say air and water. Remember this. It costs much more to do things environmentally clean. China doesn’t do anything.”
In his landmark encyclical “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis warned in 2015 of “extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us.” The pope urged people of goodwill to engage in “dialogue which can help us escape the spiral of self-destruction which currently engulfs us.”
Abortion and in vitro fertilization
During his first term, Mr. Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, all of whom voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortion became an issue governed by the states. Yet on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump distanced himself from his previous pro-life position.
The Republican Party platform for 2024, for example, mentioned abortion only once. The party said it would oppose late-term abortion and that it would support in vitro fertilization.
The Catholic Church, in accordance with its belief that human life begins at conception, opposes I.V.F. and abortion.
The second Catholic vice president
Mr. Trump chose JD Vance, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, to be his running mate. Vice President-elect Vance will be the second Catholic to serve in that role, following Joe Biden. Since 2008, a Catholic will have served as either vice president or president in four out of five administrations.
Mr. Vance, a convert to Catholicism, first captured national attention for his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy. He previously described himself as a “never Trump guy,” and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022.
The vice president-elect, who does not hesitate to share his religious affiliation, nevertheless parts ways with the Catholic Church’s position on immigration. Mr. Vance previously expressed his desire for abortion to be illegal but pivoted more recently and now supports access to abortion pills as well as I.V.F.
The Catholic vote
While imperfect, exit polls can help us understand trends among voters. Exit polling indicates that Catholics favored Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris, 56 to 41 percent.
Mr. Trump captured 45 percent of the Latino vote, compared to 54 percent for Ms. Harris. The difference is more pronounced when gender is included, as 54 percent of Latino men backed Mr. Trump, and 61 percent of Latina women supported Ms. Harris.
The polling also found predictable trends on the issues. Those who favored legalizing abortion in all or most cases overwhelmingly supported Ms. Harris, while those who believe it should be illegal in most or all cases favored Mr. Trump.
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Mr. Trump survived two assassination attempts this year, accounts of which became a regular part of his speeches at rallies. He referred to the attempts again in his acceptance speech last night.
“They said that many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” he said during his acceptance speech. “And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. And now we are going to fulfill that mission together.”
In the weeks to come, Americans will be processing the results of this historic election. If the exit polling is anything to go by, Catholics had a pivotal role in the election of Mr. Trump to a second term. In the coming years, we will see if they also do their part to hold Mr. Trump and all elected officials to account.
