RUTHFULLY YOURS

Congratulations to President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Never having run for so much as city council, he tried his hand at politics and, in his very first campaign, scored Earth’s most powerful office. He did so by beating the amalgamated might of the Clinton and Obama machines — two of the most capable and accomplished political operations in U.S. history.

Trump did this while enduring the constant, scorching hostility of Hollywood, Broadway, and nearly the entire popular culture. He also survived a relentless headwind of scathing media coverage. Atop their brutal dispatches, some 430 “objective” journalists, the Center for Public Integrity reports, donated $381,814 (96.3 percent) to Clinton and $14,373 (3.6 percent) to Trump between January 1, 2015 and August 30, 2016.

Trump and his supporters were accused of hate, even as unhinged Leftists graffitied “Kill your local Trump supporter” in Boston, demolished with a pickaxe his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and subjected Republican party offices to vandalism and even arson.

Trump won, even though numerous Republican party elders, sitting officials, conservative activists, and center-Right intellectuals treated him with attitudes ranging from aloofness to the boundless, searing, ultimately baffling disgust of Never Trump. Party unity is usually a given for presidential nominees. Trump landed on top without it.

Trump also conquered on the cheap. He spent $270 million for his 59.8 million votes while Hillary poured $521 million into her 60 million ballots. That equals $4.51 per Trump vote versus $8.68 per Clinton ballot.

Agree or disagree with Trump, his relatively inexpensive defeat of these forces is a truly staggering accomplishment.

This stunned his supporters as much as anyone else.

When Fox News Channel declared at 2:40 a.m. that Trump secured Pennsylvania and, thus, the White House, hundreds of Young Republicans at Manhattan’s Turnmill Bar exploded with glee. They seemed as astonished as they were thrilled.

“I can’t believe this is happening!” one Trumpnik screamed with joy.

“We did it! We actually did it!” cheered NY State GOP finance director Orestes Jacinto at Rosie O’Grady’s, a watering hole near Trump’s Election Night headquarters at the New York Hilton.

Trump fans spent Wednesday morning’s wee hours in a state of ecstatic disbelief.

Trump triumphed in part by belying the shopworn claims of liberal journalists that his campaign was built on bigotry.

“There is an underlying racism that we can’t get away from that is a big part of this story, and also questions about, ‘Can a woman be president of the United States right now?’” veteran journalist Carl Bernstein moaned on CNN soon after Trump won.

Despite such hideous accusations, the “racist” Trump actually outpaced 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney among black voters, 8 percent to 6, and among Hispanics, 29 percent to 27, according to Pew Research. The “sexist” Trump nearly tied Romney 42 percent to 44 among all women and topped Hillary among white women, 53 percent to 43. (Romney won 56 percent of white women to Obama’s 42.)

Hillary lost, in part, because she underperformed Obama among minorities. While Obama won 93 percent of the black vote in 2012, she took only 88 percent on Tuesday. Among Hispanics, Obama scored 71 percent versus 65 for Clinton.

So much for the “racist Trump” lies.

Congratulations as well to Trump’s top strategists Steve Bannon, David Bossie, and Kellyanne Conway (the first woman to command a winning presidential campaign). They deserve enormous credit for this spectacular victory.

But Election Day’s real heroes, who merit infinite gratitude, are America’s voters. The electorate rejected the Democratic Left’s sneering arrogance. Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of them an “irredeemable” “basket of deplorables.” Bill Clinton described Trump’s base voter as “your standard redneck.” Obama said that “the guys out there” oppose Hillary’s displaying political ambition because “when a woman suddenly does it, suddenly you’re all like, ‘Well, why’s she doing that?’” (Perhaps Obama thinks the four of 10 women who backed Trump expressed self-hatred rather than misogyny.) Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber notoriously mocked “the stupidity of the American voter.”

Too many Democrats laughed at too many regular Joes and Janes. And now, those Joes and Janes have the last laugh.

Thanks to the voters, America dodged a bullet Tuesday night.

A Hillary Clinton administration would have meant four more years of Obama’s high taxes, relentless spending, regulatory meddling, economic redistribution, and political retribution against opponents. A thousand Lois Lerners would have bloomed.

Trump’s final fortnight on the hustings boded well for America. He hugged his teleprompter, stayed on message, and spurned Twitter. This serious, disciplined, and presidential candidate prevailed. Trump grew into his role as GOP nominee and, likewise, will grow into the presidency.

Trump will bring management prowess to Washington. While Obama never even ran a lemonade stand before winning the White House, the $9.5 billion Trump Organization includes nine venues overseas, 10 hotels, 17 golf courses, and 24 U.S. properties. Trump’s payroll numbers 22,450, reports PrivCo, a private-company database.

As for Obama, he will pay dearly for his unilateralism and curdled disdain for bipartisanship.

Obamacare slithered through Congress with zero GOP votes. Poetic justice will see a unified Republican government repeal and replace Obama’s calamitous signature law.

The self-destructive Iran-nuclear deal — imposed as an “executive agreement,” rather than a treaty — probably will be atomized.

Obama flogged America with the Paris “global warming” agreement and his attendant, $993 billion Clean Power Plan. He obligated America to its terms, subject to ratification by other global signatories, essentially outsourcing the Senate. A GOP Congress likely will junk this lawless, needless nonsense.

And, with a stroke of a pen, President Trump will vacate Emperor Obama’s decrees — i.e. executive orders and “guidance letters” — on immigration, transgender bathrooms, due-process limits in college sexual-harassment cases, and lots more.

The result? Virtually every one of Obama’s nationally ruinous policies will be cremated by next spring. Within months, Obama’s disastrous legacy will be erased. He will have little more long-term impact than a traveling con man who badly overstayed his welcome.

So, here’s to voters from coast to coast. On Tuesday, they saved America.

Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated since its initial publication.

— Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor with National Review Online.