JOSH HAMMER: The early omen that Trump was headed for a landslide that you may have missed

At 5:00 PM EST Tuesday the Exit Polls started to trickle in.

I flipped connected the TV to perceive Chris Wallace, the erstwhile Fox News anchor-turned-CNN analyst, soberly opine connected a statistic showing a whopping 72 percent of Americans were either dissatisfied oregon aggravated astir the absorption of the country.

It would beryllium a 'miracle,' said Wallace, if Harris tin triumph 'with that benignant of headwind.'

Co-host Dana Bash scoffed. It wasn't wide which candidate, Donald Trump oregon Kamala Harris, would carnivore blasted for America's problems, she argued.

Indeed, it was excessively aboriginal to tell.

I had expectations of a beardown Trump showing, but adjacent I mislaid my nervus a spot erstwhile the existent votes started coming in.

My adopted location authorities of Florida was 1 of the archetypal to commencement reporting results.

At 8:01 pm, the Associated Press called the longtime Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County successful the state's southeast. A Republican statesmanlike campaigner hadn't won determination since George H.W. Bush successful 1988.

Across the state, Trump was dramatically overperforming his 2020 results successful the Sunshine State, winning with a borderline person to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's monolithic 2022 statewide romp.

In the majority-Hispanic Miami-Dade County, Trump was winning by a double-digit margin. He was prevailing successful bluish Hillsborough County, wherever the metropolis of Tampa lies and was moving neck-and-neck successful ritzy, elite Palm Beach County (where helium lives).

Trump considerably outperformed his RealClearPolitics mean of polling successful Florida, which had him winning by 8 percent points. (Today, he's projected to triumph by much than 13 points).

Conservative causes connected the ballot besides won: A projected measurement to codify termination into the Florida Constitution failed arsenic did a pro-marijuana measurement that had been wide expected to pass.

It was a reddish question successful Florida – but however acold would the tide transportation Trump and the Republicans?

Rural counties crossed the South and Midwest began to report. It became wide that Trump was overperforming elsewhere excessively – and Harris was trailing. Black elector turnout successful the large metro areas, specified arsenic Atlanta and Charlotte, was little than Team Harris had banked on.

'Let maine conscionable springiness you a gut cheque astir what we are proceeding from… the Harris headquarters,' reported CNN's Abby Phillips arsenic the nighttime rolled on. 'I deliberation the operative connection close present is silence. There's not a batch being said, due to the fact that the Harris squad appears to beryllium searching for agleam spots successful the map.'

The lights were blinking red.

It became evident that Harris was besides struggling to lucifer Biden's ballot number successful the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Old Dominion was not expected to beryllium successful play. Then, earlier a azygous plaything authorities was called, Democratic run guru James Carville sounded the alarm.

'There are troubling signs retired there… aboriginal indications present are not sterling,' the Ragin' Cajun said connected Amazon's unrecorded Election Day coverage.

Liberal faces connected the sheet blanched and Democratic panic began to prime up steam.

Iowa was called for Trump. No large astonishment there—it's a bright-red state. But Trump's Hawkeye State rout destroyed the story spun by pollster Ann Selzer, who had confounded truthful galore politicos implicit the play with her eyebrow-raising last canvass showing Harris successful the pb there.

The MAGA movement's occurrence successful the Acela corridor was besides remarkable. 

Harris won bright-blue New Jersey by a paltry borderline of nether 5 percent. In New York State, the statewide borderline was hardly treble digits—with embattled down-ballot Republican congressmen, specified arsenic Mike Lawler, prevailing, and Trump picking up monolithic further enactment successful New York City and neighboring Nassau County from his triumph 4 years ago. 

In Queens County, 1 of the astir racially and ethnically divers counties successful America, Trump gained 20 points from his 2020 performance.

The dominos started to autumn rapidly aft that.

The archetypal battleground, North Carolina, was called. Trump overperformed there— arsenic helium did successful Georgia. Neither authorities was rather arsenic adjacent arsenic the polls suggested.

Harris's way to 270 Electoral College votes narrowed.

It was past evident that the Harris run was forced to spell all-in connected the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

But by 10:30 oregon 11:00 pm, it was already wide that prognosticators were projecting a likelier-than-not Trump triumph successful the Keystone State—as good arsenic its chap Rust Belt battlegrounds, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The infamous New York Times 'needle,' the root of truthful galore Hillary Clinton jokes 8 years ago, began trending toward Trump. 

Gloom descended connected the sets astatine CNN and MSNBC.

Around 12:30 AM oregon so, Team Harris announced that she wouldn't beryllium addressing supporters. They sent retired Cedric Richmond to bash that thankless task instead. It was Hillary Clinton astatine the Javits Center each implicit again: ever-flowing wide tears.

By 1:20 AM, galore of the networks had called Pennsylvania. It was each over. It wasn't conscionable looking similar a win, but an electoral blowout. 

Subsequent results crossed the Rust Belt and Sun Belt person lone confirmed the Electoral College massacre.

Ultimately, Donald Trump became the archetypal Republican statesmanlike standard-bearer to triumph the nationalist fashionable ballot since George W. Bush successful 2004. 

He did truthful by outright winning Hispanic men, winning a historically precocious percent of achromatic men and younger voters, and maintaining his margins with his bedrock demographic, the achromatic moving class. 

The result: the decease of the 2008 Barack Obama Democratic Party intersectional coalition, the further MAGA-ization of the erstwhile state nine GOP, and the azygous top comeback communicative successful American history.