Earnest ♒︎ 𖤐 🇧🇩

❤️🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo’s full letter to Portuguese fans. “To the Portuguese people, The day has come to hand back the shirt and the captain's armband of the national team that belongs to all of us. I never felt that it was exclusively mine, but for 23 years, I had the privilege and responsibility of wearing it, defending it, and carrying it with me to stadiums all around the world. Today, the moment has come to pass it on to the future. It was not an easy decision, because some decisions are not made with the head alone. They are also made with the heart. I am bringing to an end a journey that began in August 2003 and changed my life forever. When I look back and think about everything I experienced with the national team, I don't just see matches, goals, records, or trophies. I see people. I see immigrants who, for 90 minutes, felt a little closer to Portugal. I see millions of Portuguese people whom I never met personally, but who became part of my life. Because, at the end of the day, football is much bigger than a game. Football is about people. Throughout my entire career with the national team, I always tried to push beyond my limits. I wanted to win, I wanted to be the best, I wanted to make history. I was always demanding of myself. I always wanted more. I always believed we could go further, and I gave everything I had for this shirt. There were perfect afternoons and nights. There were victories I will never forget. There were defeats that still hurt to remember today. I also failed. I also suffered. There were moments when I couldn't give the Portuguese people what they wanted so badly. But I never gave up. And above all, I never stopped feeling proud to represent Portugal. Over these years, I learned some very simple things: goals come and go, trophies end up in museums, records are eventually broken, but there is something that time can never erase. The place I hold in people's hearts. If I ever made you happy, if one of my goals ever made you hug someone, forget a worry, or feel proud of our country, then it was all worth it. Because being Portuguese is also about that. We suffer together. We get back up together. We believe again. Portugal will always need young people who dream, players who never give up, and new generations who believe it is possible to reach places no one has reached before. Because a country that continues to create new heroes is a country that never stops believing in itself. To my national team teammates, I want to leave a special message. Thank you for every run, every hug, every argument, every moment of silence before stepping onto the pitch, every victory we celebrated together, and every defeat that made us stronger. I had the privilege of being your captain, but no captain walks alone, and you are all part of my story. To all the coaches, directors, doctors, physiotherapists, kit managers, staff members, and the many people who worked with me throughout these years, thank you. Many of you never appeared in the photographs, but without you, none of those photographs would have been possible. To my family, thank you for sharing this dream with me. Thank you for understanding the absences, the sacrifices, and the moments when the national team had to take up a space that also belonged to you. If I made it this far, it was because we always walked hand in hand. And to the Portuguese people, to every Portuguese person around the world, I want to tell you one last thing. There is an image that I will always carry with me. A moment when the national anthem begins. I look around me. I see my teammates. I see the stands. I see children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. I see Portuguese people who travelled from so far away just to be there. And during those moments, we stop being different. There are no clubs. There are no colors. There are no classes. There are no professions. There are no opinions. There is only one passion: Portugal”.

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.