WASHINGTON — News flash! Politicians: If you work hard and treat all people as prospective supporters regardless of their color or community of origin, you may be surprised.

Congratulations President-Elect Donald Trump. Winning the popular vote and sweeping the battleground states in a landslide victory was a monumental achievement.

For decades I have tried to tell white Republican candidates for office to ask for the vote of Black people and Latinos. They would find a receptive audience as American values and aspirations have no color boundaries.

In my book “With God, For God and For Country” which I wrote eight years ago, I talked about things a candidate must do to win 25% of the Black vote. Well, Trump, knowingly or not, did those things and he got 25% of the Black male vote and 12% of the overall Black vote – a 50% increase over the 2020 election. He also got a whopping 40% of the Latino vote. Due largely to these voting declines for the Democratic side, Vice President Kamala Harris lost the presidency.

All the past presidents in the grave must be relieved today. I am sure they were amazed at the distorted argument Democrats put forth about saving our democracy when that democracy they all loved was headed off the cliff, thanks to missteps of the Biden-Harris administration.

The cornerstone of the Democrats’ closing argument was about Jan. 6. They depicted the episode at the U.S. Capitol as a catastrophe, when it was merely a riot. It was bad, but no way could a few hundred people overturn the U.S. government.

When I served in Congress, the Speaker of the House at the time assured us members that the building was one of the most secure in the country, next to the White House and Pentagon.

This is truth versus lies. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, were trying to trick America into believing that Trump was the incumbent when Biden and Harris were the folks in office. They were responsible for the failures of the last four years, which were reflected in polls (70 percent of Americans wanted a change in direction).

The pain and suffering that many Americans felt from inflation, the invasion of our communities by illegal immigrants due to our porous border with Mexico, and our financing of two wars that have no end in sight have all proven troublesome. Yet the Democrats’ cry was “freedom,” using hyperbole to infer that Republicans did not care about the health concerns of women.

The actions of Trump’s enemies spoke louder than Trump’s rhetoric. We recall two impeachments, scores of indictments seeking to jail and impoverish him, and two attempts to take his life. But God works in mysterious ways.

Democrats criticized and used against Trump the fact that he was “human.” If you had gone through half the hardships that he has had to endure over the last nine years, you too would speak out with anger from time to time against your foes. And let us remember the old adage, “Something that does not kill you, makes you stronger.” This is so true for Trump.

How could someone who has been president before and gave us peace, prosperity, and a secure border be a threat to our democracy?

It was not fair to Harris to expect her to prove her abilities for the highest position in the land in about 100 days. Blame goes here to a stubborn President Joe Biden who should have gotten off the stage earlier and who topped it off by calling Trump supporters “garbage.”

Harris’s selection of Walz, who was not a big asset, and her inability to communicate her stances on issues other than abortion rights, were unforced errors. These half-truths, lies, distortions, and trickery were most troubling for me.

Democrats warned that Trump would seek revenge. What the liberal media failed to highlight is that Trump said his success would serve as his revenge.

“Many people told me that God saved my life for a reason,” said Trump. God may have put his thumb on the scale to help Trump to a historic win.

Two hurricanes also helped the case for Trump. Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis adroitly handled one in stark contrast with the hurricane that hit the battleground state of North Carolina, where people suffered and died as assistance and relief slowly trickled in. Trump weighed in and offered his support.

Puerto Rico being “a floating island of garbage” was meant to hurt Trump, but it may have done the opposite in energizing Latinos, as fate would have it.

Harris tried to reinvent herself without actually reinventing herself. She gave no cogent response to her flip flops on the issues. At times she completely refused to answer questions, saying, “I will follow the law” (something all Americans are supposed to do anyway).

No one should doubt that if Americans continued with Democrats in the White House we would be going faster in the wrong direction – toward the abyss. It is like being one of four passengers in a car all trying to tell the driver to turn around. Finally, the “silent majority” had its say and we will get a different course.

I prayed for God to give us the best person as our next president to guide us for the next four years. I believe God answered my prayers and the prayers of millions of Americans by selecting Donald J. Trump to be our 47th president.