The US pres­i­den­tial elec­tion out­come seemed set even from 10.23 pm Tues­day when for­mer Re­pub­li­can Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump to­talled 154 Elec­toral Col­lege votes from the re­quired 270—and De­moc­rats Vice Pres­i­dent Ka­mala Har­ris, on­ly 81.

By Wednes­day, the take­aways from Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s “2.0” cam­paign and Har­ris’ crush­ing de­feat were clear to the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion: the re­sults of dis­con­nec­tion, un­der/over­es­ti­mat­ing peo­ple, and pub­lic feel­ings on “bread-and-but­ter” is­sues.

Trump cor­rect­ly tar­get­ed US econ­o­my and se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns, bond­ing eth­nic­i­ties, gen­ders, and ages. Flip­ping swing states, Red Tide re­sults shout­ed vot­ers’ dis­gruntle­ment with bur­dens af­fect­ing ba­sics be­yond De­moc­rats’ ban­ner caus­es, ide­al­ism, and “page-turn­ing.”

So: Trump 78, the old­est to as­sume the US’ high­est of­fice, con­tin­ues trend­ing se­nior, strong—bom­bas­tic—lead­ers. Amid Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s open-hand­ed con­grat­u­la­tions, it’s ahead how Trump’s “heal­ing Amer­i­ca” af­fects Caribbean trade, oil prices, en­er­gy, se­cu­ri­ty, and Venezuela.

The Gov­ern­ment has con­firmed that T&T’s Wash­ing­ton lob­by­ists strength­ened pre-elec­tion links with Re­pub­li­cans. In Au­gust, En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young as­sured Gov­ern­ment’s al­ways met De­mo­c­rat and Re­pub­li­can rep­re­sen­ta­tives on en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, work­ing “very hard to have re­la­tion­ships on both sides and nev­er took “ one side or the oth­er.”

But oth­er is­sues con­tin­ue. If Row­ley at­tempt­ed a “sur­prise strat­e­gy” on the Op­po­si­tion with the ear­ly gen­er­al elec­tion, can­celling PNM’s in­ter­nal elec­tions for this, un­cov­ered is­sues in his camp, in­clud­ing re­sis­tance to the per­cep­tion that Young—re­peat­ed­ly ap­point­ed PM—may be “fast-tracked” to lead­er­ship mi­nus in­ter­nals al­low­ing an ex­ec­u­tive to seek mem­bers’ views.

PNM sources claim al­most “38 per cent” of ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers op­pose post­pone­ment be­yond labour of­fi­cer Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus. On why ex-min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte—who holds no post—is voic­ing views, be­fore his 2020 Cab­i­net res­ig­na­tion he was seen by some—in­clud­ing cer­tain ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers and PNM’s so-called “black cau­cus”—as “heir ap­par­ent” (sic).

Since on­ly MPs have a chance seek­ing lead­er­ship, his 2020 at­tempt at La Brea can­di­da­cy may have helped, but res­ig­na­tion de­railed that. Now, in­ter­nal poll can­cel­la­tion—which may have changed the ex­ec­u­tive and PNM’s screen­ing team—al­so ends his in­ten­tion to re-seek La Brea.

Row­ley, com­ment­ing on Le Hunte re­cent­ly, coy­ly queried one per­son be­ing treat­ed as a “bell­wether” (leader). Le Hunte, how­ev­er, main­tains con­cern the ex­ec­u­tive—which in­cludes screen­ing team mem­bers—may se­lect can­di­dates sup­port­ing Young’s lead­er­ship.

With the is­sue shad­ow­ing elec­tion-bound PNM, no date’s ex­pect­ed un­til in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal is­sues are reme­died. If the US out­come sen­si­tis­es the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure cit­i­zens feel com­fort­able, pro­cure­ment pro­ce­dures’ de­lay to fa­cil­i­tate im­prove­ments is one fac­tor to fix.

More de­vel­ops month end when nom­i­nee screen­ing for 15 of PNM’s 22 con­stituen­cies be­gins—one sign elec­tion may not be as dis­tant as Au­gust 2025. While Row­ley’s ob­served re­ac­tions to Young, screen­ing’s be­ing ob­served by de­trac­tors as a test whether can­di­dates se­lect­ed may hold the po­ten­tial “to de­fend” Young’s lead­er­ship.

It’s ahead whether a so­lu­tion comes via as­sur­ance that Row­ley’s en­ter­ing the elec­tion and won’t re­sign as PM un­til af­ter mem­bers choose a leader, and if that aris­es with an­oth­er in­di­ca­tor of an im­mi­nent date: when nom­i­na­tions are sought for the last sev­en PNM con­stituen­cies, in­clud­ing Row­ley’s, Young’s, and To­ba­go seats.

That’s ex­pect­ed af­ter ear­ly 2025 com­ple­tion of elec­tion leg­is­la­tion: To­ba­go au­ton­o­my bills, EBC’s bound­ary changes, and cam­paign fi­nance re­form. Ear­ly elec­tion’s al­so re­quired as UNC co­a­lesces. Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has added in­cen­tives.

Af­ter flame-throw­ing “koo­choor” on PNM’s is­sues, cit­ing PNM’s Fos­ter Cum­mings as a “lead­er­ship” con­tender against Young, she earned Le Hunte’s crit­i­cism. More torch­ing’s ahead at Mon­day’s UNC meet­ing along­side Prof Sel­wyn Cud­joe in PNM’s San Fer­nan­do West.

Her ef­fu­sive mes­sage on Trump and his “coali­tion of in­ter­ests”—a con­cept her Gov­ern­ment rose on—bore out UNC in­sid­ers’ view since Au­gust that a “weak” Har­ris would lose. UNC will pur­sue a sim­i­lar coali­tion.

How that works for NTA’s Gary Grif­fith, HOPE, Jack Warn­er, ex-MPs, and the Paray Five re­mains ahead. De­spite the up­com­ing US ex­tra­di­tion case, Warn­er’s ex­ul­ta­tion that a “con­vict­ed felon could win the high­est US post” and “T&T must re­spect Amer­i­ca’s wish­es” may aid UNC nom­i­nees with le­gal is­sues.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s man­age­ment, in­clud­ing screen­ing, will test her ca­pac­i­ty for hard de­ci­sions re­quired if her op­po­si­tion is to meet scruti­ny. Be­yond Trump’s suc­cess. And PNM’s is­sues.