1. So, I think reasonable people can agree that Trump was one of the worst presidents in American history, totally unfit for any position of authority and he presided over a disaster covid response. That leaves the interesting question of how he came so close to re-election.

2. I mean Trump came within 44,000 votes in 3 states (Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin) of winning the electoral college even with a 7 million popular vote loss. Far too close for comfort. A reflection of the badness of the electoral college, yes, but something more.

3. Trump got 11 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016. Fortunately, Biden got 15 million more votes than Hillary Clinton. Still: it's hard to deny that Trump mobilized a lot more people over time even as he presided over disaster. It's worth asking why.

4. Polling pretty consistently showed that Trump got high ratings on economy and poor on everything else. That's due to 2 things: Fed Reserve moving to full employment policy (with rise in real wages) & robust CARES act (with UI top-up).

5. As bad as Trump was, there are things worth copying: bullying the Fed to do full employment & low interest, generous stimulus (and sign the damn checks), & in general concrete results for supporters. More here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-learn-trump-economy/