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They Told Truman to Resign in 1946—What Happened Next Should Terrify Trump's Critics
11/05/2026 | Níkos Vlachos

Posted on 11/05/2026 1:48:05 AM PST by nikos1121

When I think of the election results from Tuesday, I am immediately reminded of what happened on November 5, 1946.

It was barely one year after the end of World War II. Harry S. Truman had assumed the presidency when FDR died in April 1945.

Only nineteen months after taking office, there was a mid-term national election. Here is a brief story of what happened.

The nation was restless, exhausted, and bitter. Americans were grappling with post-war inflation, meat shortages, crippling nationwide labor strikes, and what many in the Washington press corps sneeringly viewed as nothing more than a failed Missouri haberdasher stumbling in FDR’s enormous shoes.

The Republicans rallied around a devastatingly simple two-word slogan: "Had Enough?"

The voters roared back that they had.

On election night, the GOP swept into power with a vengeance, picking up 55 seats in the House and 12 in the Senate to capture both chambers for the first time in sixteen years. It wasn’t merely a midterm setback; it was an absolute repudiation.

Truman had gone back home to Independence, Missouri, to vote and await the returns. When the catastrophic scale of the massacre became clear, he didn't hold a late-night press conference. He simply went to bed.

The next morning, waking up to the grim reality of the results, he faced a horde of reporters and refused to offer any public comment. His mood was somber, quiet, and deeply wounded.

He knew the electorate had just handed down a personal vote of "no confidence" against the former haberdasher turned accidental president.

Almost immediately, the Washington establishment and prominent voices within his own party treated him as an irrelevant ghost walking through his own presidency.

Senator J. William Fulbright, a fellow Democrat from Arkansas, publicly suggested that Truman should appoint a Republican Secretary of State and then resign from the presidency altogether to spare the country two years of bitter paralysis.

Truman was privately furious, dismissed him as "Senator Half-bright," and dug his heels in.

He didn't surrender to the panic. Instead, once the initial sting subsided, Truman realized that disastrous night had given him the exact adversary he needed.

Stopped from trying to placate everyone, he went on the attack. He vetoed their tax cuts, challenged their labor restrictions, and aggressively drew contrasts with the conservative majority.

By 1948, the defeat of 1946 had handed him his most formidable weapon: the foil of the "Do-Nothing, Good-for-Nothing 80th Congress."

He took to the rails on his whistle-stop tour, bypassed the media, and turned a political graveyard into the famous front-page headline: Dewey Defeats Truman—with Truman holding the paper, grinning ear to ear.

Trump doesn’t need a blueprint, but already the political waters are similar with people in his own party calling for his resignation. Trump would do well to follow the Truman playbook.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: fighttruth; getajob; nobodyaskedyou; trumantrump

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1 posted on 11/05/2026 1:48:06 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: 4Liberty; absalom01; alicewonders; AloneInMass; Apple Pan Dowdy; Aria; AUsome Joy; babyfreep; ...

2 posted on 11/05/2026 1:55:35 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: nikos1121

Trump has enemies. He’s got em’ right where he wants em’.


3 posted on 11/05/2026 1:58:52 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: nikos1121

LOL I thought that you were going to
mention the 1945 Alamogordo Test eventually

hehehe


4 posted on 11/05/2026 2:14:02 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: nikos1121

imho rest a bit which was granted to our nation is over ……


5 posted on 11/05/2026 2:31:52 AM PST by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Trump no longer has to placate the RINOs and turncoats. They hindered a lot of good things because he needed to keep them on board to accomplish anything.

Now, he no longer has to water things down and waste taxpayer money to get their votes. I’m thinking of the senate in particular. His adversary will be front and center and he can go on the attack without worrying about knitting together a thin majority.

The dems will come at him with both barrels. Investigations and impeachment are the only thing in their quiver. They’ve got absolutely nothing that will make the price of goods come down, reduce gas prices, increase diesel supplies, or cure any of the things they ran so falsely on.

The veto will be wielded a lot at first. It will force the dems to deal directly with Trump, the man they are trying to impeach, if they want any legislation to move forward. Trump can ignore the RINOS. He doesn’t need them.

I think this is where Trump will shine. He loves dealing with adversity. He will be take his message directly to the public exposing the left and their lack of any ideas except “Trump !!! “

We can either cry in our Wheaties or join him in mocking, exposing, and ridiculing the stupid ideas the dems will put forward. It’s as simple as asking how this will bring down prices, make gas cheaper, or end the war in Iran.

I suspect Iran will soon be a smoking rubble and we will withdraw completely from the region. Let Europe worry about their bad neighbor. When the Strait is closed again, the dems will be blamed. It’s what they campaigned on .

Take a few deep breaths. It’s going to get interesting.

EC


6 posted on 11/05/2026 2:32:21 AM PST by Ex-Con777 ("Journalism is about covering important stories-with a pillow, until they stop moving." ~ David Burg)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Trump no longer has to placate the RINOs and turncoats. They hindered a lot of good things because he needed to keep them on board to accomplish anything.

Now, he no longer has to water things down and waste taxpayer money to get their votes. I’m thinking of the senate in particular. His adversary will be front and center and he can go on the attack without worrying about knitting together a thin majority.

The dems will come at him with both barrels. Investigations and impeachment are the only thing in their quiver. They’ve got absolutely nothing that will make the price of goods come down, reduce gas prices, increase diesel supplies, or cure any of the things they ran so falsely on.

The veto will be wielded a lot at first. It will force the dems to deal directly with Trump, the man they are trying to impeach, if they want any legislation to move forward. Trump can ignore the RINOS. He doesn’t need them.

I think this is where Trump will shine. He loves dealing with adversity. He will be take his message directly to the public exposing the left and their lack of any ideas except “Trump !!! “

We can either cry in our Wheaties or join him in mocking, exposing, and ridiculing the stupid ideas the dems will put forward. It’s as simple as asking how this will bring down prices, make gas cheaper, or end the war in Iran.

I suspect Iran will soon be a smoking rubble and we will withdraw completely from the region. Let Europe worry about their bad neighbor. When the Strait is closed again, the dems will be blamed. It’s what they campaigned on .

Take a few deep breaths. It’s going to get interesting.

EC


7 posted on 11/05/2026 2:34:01 AM PST by Ex-Con777 ("Journalism is about covering important stories-with a pillow, until they stop moving." ~ David Burg)
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To: Ex-Con777

I agree. Trump always is a step a head. I see where this guy Thune has the audacity to run for Senate Minority? He’s the Senator Fulbright of Truman’s time.


8 posted on 11/05/2026 2:43:16 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: Ex-Con777

I think he should take out the midterm fiasco on Iran. Up to and including using nukes.


9 posted on 11/05/2026 2:50:33 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn )
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To: nikos1121
If somebody 10-15 years younger did what he just finished doing, they’d be wanting to collapse on the couch or straight into bed. If anyone wants to believe that he put himself through the rigamarole of yet another nationwide MAGA rally blitz for selfish reasons, they’re just hellbent on making him look bad. Whatever it is, he’s not about to take the bullshit sitting down. He’s had to suffer a lot of fools, mortal enemies and general treachery at every turn. Lesser men would have to recalibrate their Neuralink every other day to even come close to keeping up with him. If a man in his position could make a million mistakes and he only makes 100,000, that’s still pretty damned good. Two years ago, I voted for four more years and I would do it again if I could.
10 posted on 11/05/2026 2:54:21 AM PST by equaviator (Nobody's perfect. That's why they put pencils on erasers!)
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To: Ex-Con777

Your post makes sense and much of it could likely be a fact.

The leftists are parading the election as a super major victory, and it was. However Trump’s return to power two years ago was also a major victory. What happens between now and 2028 could also spell a major victory for the GOP.

A proven leader is DeSantis, I see him as the new blood of the GOP that will be our next President. The rats will continue to damage the country which will make DeSantis shine even brighter. Vance will go down in history as another Pence and Hegseth will be blamed for the Iran war - this will clear the path for DeSantis.


11 posted on 11/05/2026 3:10:14 AM PST by redfreedom (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: nikos1121
What a wonderful post. Thank you Niko! Trump is like Moses, gone to the mountaintop to receive the Word, comes down and the people have made a golden calf.

He will be unhappy for a while, of the electoral repudiation, but then he will utilize all its tactical advantages and 'silver linings' to advantage, as you have noted.

People, sadly, are fickle, spineless, infantile ingrates, as a rule.

They want inflation to last a month; it actually is a permanent reindexing of the currency and everything will probably always cost more now. But wages eventually come up and catch up with it, and we are left with good buying power but a Monopoly money banknote.

Sure the GOP and DJT SHOULD HAVE made the point that the inflation is largely from paying everyone to sit at home for two years during Covid and still get paid.

And the OIL prices are from the globalist oil people sticking it to DJT as much as possible before the election.

And interest rates are because of the traitorous Fed wanting to stick it to DJT as much as possible; maybe now they will knock it off and lower rates.

But, amazingly, people have completely forgotten about the epidemic and the latent hyperinflation it has obviously caused.

Well, here it is. And DJT should start (it's never too late IMHO) to make that point again and again to this stiff necked people.

Inflation is not DJT's fault.

It's Biden's, Fauci's, and Batwoman's fault.

And all the lackeys who implemented the Covid Chaos Op so very well.

Now of course because of the ignorance and stony stupidity of the people, DJT was left holding the bag.

But of course there were a lot, lot of illegals voting.

And of course we have a Moose-Limb-Communist Axis to deal with.

But with time and education, people can be taught the folly of joining that.

And the voter rolls can eventually be straightened out. And elections made true.

DJT and our country are about to enter into the best phase of his presidency.

DJT Unchained is going to be a time of great progress and great reform.

12 posted on 11/05/2026 3:12:31 AM PST by caddie (Going forward we all need to become Trump, and also Captain Obvious, and Charlie Kirk too. )
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To: caddie

If everything you say here doesn’t become reality, then all it is is a bunch of optimistic crap!


13 posted on 11/05/2026 3:21:00 AM PST by johnthebaptistmoore (The world continues to be stuck in a "all leftist, all of the time" funk. BUNK THE FUNK)
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To: equaviator

That’s exactly the attitude I want to hear on FR. Not the gnashing of teeth, the fear and foreboding. I see where Cronyn has an article in the Wall Street Journal. The big winners of all this will probably be DeSantis.


14 posted on 11/05/2026 3:44:45 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: redfreedom

I agree. Desantis/Rubio


15 posted on 11/05/2026 3:46:50 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: caddie

Good reply! The posts are running positive uplifting, America and our future is great to fear and foreboding, blame Trump.... Thank you to all who are posting the former....


16 posted on 11/05/2026 3:50:23 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: caddie
DJT and our country are about to enter into the best phase of his presidency.

DJT Unchained is going to be a time of great progress and great reform.

After reading so many negative posts and gloom and doom comments your post is a breath of fresh air! Thank you

17 posted on 11/05/2026 3:56:33 AM PST by txlurker
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To: nikos1121

Thanks for posting. It’s an uplifting story.

Considering the political climate now, 80 years later, I won’t get too encouraged.

Wealthy malefactors have saturated the Judiciary with communists. The commie judges are brutal and evil, using SCOTUS as a cudgel. SCOTUS cared about the Constitution then; now most of them are retarded left-wing activists.

The Democrat party, both pols and citizens, also are brutal and evil. In Truman’s time, attempts on a President’s life were few and far between — nonexistent for years at a time.

Per AI: “between 25 and 27 out of the 45 individuals who have served as U.S. President did NOT have an assassination attempt made against them.”

It’s a new world, but I hope and pray that Trump does take the opportunity to STICK IT TO THEM endlessly. (Does that make me a bad person? IDK.)


18 posted on 11/05/2026 3:58:38 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.)
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To: central_va
I think he should take out the midterm fiasco on Iran. Up to and including using nukes.

AGREE 1000%

19 posted on 11/05/2026 3:59:55 AM PST by txlurker
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To: equaviator

“If somebody 10-15 years younger did what he just finished doing, they’d be wanting to collapse on the couch or straight into bed.”

He’s a Boomer (or on the cusp). The younger generations are whiners. The Boomer generation was the last one that had a thread of stick-to-it-iveness. I think overall they learned to be strong and bold due to the Silent Generation men in their lives who had kicked ass during World War Eleven.


20 posted on 11/05/2026 4:06:06 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.)
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