One cannot help but note in a sardonic way that the world’s greatest nation voted in a head of state no better than Donald Trump, twice. The choice of presidential candidates that this nation of almost 335 million people generated, could only get as good as this.
A resurgent Donald Trumped his adversary Kamala Harris in a clean sweep in Tuesday’s election, rising to become the first convicted president of the United States, an honour that only Trump could have managed. Perhaps, the American people chose the lesser evil of a convicted felon over the greater vileness of a bunch of genocide enablers.
UK daily The Mirror put forth, in a rather bewildered tone, the questioning headline to which we all eagerly seek an answer: “What have they done…Again?” “He’s been shot, convicted of a crime and branded a fascist… but he’s still the people’s choice,” went the reflective headline of another UK newspaper.
Though many factors have contributed to the landslide comeback of Donald Trump as the USA’s 47th president, the impact of the Gaza genocide on the people, whose tax money is funding the atrocious ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, might have gone a long way shaping voter choices, perhaps much more than pre-poll predictions could speculate. What opinion polls projected as a neck and neck race, in fact, turned out to be a neck-strangling defeat for Harris who fell way short of the Trump phenomenon.
Trump’s anti-war claim does not reconcile with his own views and the USA’s broader pro-Israel stance, something that his Muslim voters might already be well aware of
But as the American nation sends the genocide-supporting Democrats packing, it would be naive to view Trump’s triumph as signifying anything close to heralding a ceasefire deal for Gaza or a deterrence for Israel’s vicious actions in the Middle East. For Netanyahu, Trump’s ascent is as good a news as Harris’ would have been.
The Democrats’ hubris and over-confidence might have played a major part in their deflating defeat, while inflation continues to be the more standard scapegoat. In fact, the Democratic party and much of the mainstream media failed to decipher the ‘Trumpism’ on the wall, as the latter treacherously treaded towards triumph.
The Biden administration’s more than year-long support for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and more recently, Lebanon, have annoyed and alienated Arab- and Muslim-Americans who constitute notable voting blocs in the decisive swing states in the US. Many amongst these constituencies, perhaps, voted for Trump, not out of any hope from Republicans who are equally pro-Israel, but just to get back at Democrats.
Trump made pre-poll promises of ensuring peace in the Middle East once in power, to lure Arab-American voters, and perhaps, many Muslim Americans would have also thought that the promise must be given a chance. But Trump’s claim does not reconcile with his own views and the USA’s broader pro-Israel stance, something that his Muslim voters might already be well aware of.
Grappling with the reality that is Trump 2.0 might be disenchanting, as the most “factually incorrect” president-elect waits to occupy the Oval Office. The manner in which Trump has been corrected repeatedly by moderators during his presidential debates, this election campaign and earlier, only goes to show an unaware, not-so-well-informed president-elect. We see one who is quite content in his ignorance, all set to rule a country that is the hub of world’s research and innovation, and that prides itself in factual accuracy and boasts the best universities and centres of erudition on the globe.
The ‘star-spangled spanner’, as Trump is dubbed, despite his most outrageous, outlandish, extreme proclamations and often hyperbolic verbal communication, is deemed fit, in fact most popular, to hold the highest office in the world’s lone superpower. His speeches reflect on what lies inside his head, and that is key to understanding what Trump must be like as a leader.
Trump’s ramblings and running off on tangents would, any time, make headlines for their eccentricity, had any other world leader committed such faux pas. One New York Times opinion writer describes this omission as “something akin to the soft bigotry of low expectations,” whereby no one expects him to behave maturely or churn out sensible communication, so that he always gets away with almost anything. His bizarre tendency to resort to half-cooked remarks is a feature that defines Trump and how he communicates his identity to the public.
Another newspaper describes his falsification and incoherence in these words: Trump’s talks are “a smorgasbord of falsehoods, personal and professional vendettas, frequent comparisons to other famous people, a couple of handfuls of simple policy ideas, and a lot of non sequiturs that veer into barely intelligible stories.”
He is the president-elect who broke the news of pet-eating immigrants to an unaware United States, calling the immigrants “animals,” while also delusionally stating: “I’ve gone decades, decades without a war. The first president to do it for that long a period,” when he has only been in office for four years. His comments towards migrants have grown more dehumanising over time. He said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the US, endorsing the far-right Great Replacement (conspiracy) Theory which believes that the left is engineering migration to cleanse out white people.
He claimed immigrants are “prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the worst they have.” He plans a huge crackdown on immigration and the deportation of up to 15 million undocumented immigrants. Trump’s re-election also heralds Stephen. Miller’s return to the White House who was the man behind Trump’s last term’s immigration ban on Muslims.
Racial hatred, misogyny and sexism dotted his speeches as he called his opponent a “bitch” and “dumb as a rock”, while he might push for a national abortion ban, as well, as he has flip-flopped on the issue, while claiming to “protect women.”
His return to the White House comes with the promise of vengeance on his so-called enemies, whether political opponents or the media. Through Trump’s harangues one gets to see the scope of the menace and animus towards those who challenge him.
But Trump’s sweeping victory shows that falsehood couldn’t cause him much damage, despite the fact that no presidential candidate has been fact-checked more often than Trump, who is tagged a “committed, compulsive liar.” The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler described him as: “businessman Donald Trump is a fact checker’s dream … and nightmare.”
His distorted world view makes him a willing climate denier, as Trump calls climate emergency “a big hoax” and vows to ramp up oil production and encourage burning more fossil fuels. Critics believe that his plan to eliminate agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration might make the US a huge “threat to the planet.” Dismantling the climate agenda and exiting the Paris Climate Agreement will enable disasters that experts believe could “reverberate for a million years.”
A “billionaires’ bonanza,” Trump’s second term might be rife with oligarchic optics. Billionaire Elon Musk is expected to benefit greatly from his campaign support for Trump, as the former donated an estimated $132m to Republicans this election campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission. His social media platform X served as a “MAGA mouthpiece” for Trump’s campaign that was amply amplified by the platform’s algorithm. Musk might also, perhaps, move more to the forefront by being rewarded with a key economic role in the White House.
Musk’s alliance with Trump will certainly help his multiple mega companies through “favourable government treatment” and insulate the tech guru against government regulations and policies. Due to his increasing political role, his tech empire might secure a position similar to the “Gilded Age, when industry leaders like JP Morgan and John D Rockefeller enjoyed influence” over government policies impacting their businesses.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also put his weight behind Trump, supporting his campaign by blocking his Washington Post newspaper from endorsing Harris. These mega-rich Republican campaign donors may expect lofty tax cuts and political mileage that goes a long way, once Trump takes over.
All of this might already be apparent as Elon Musk made a not-so-surprising appearance on a call between Donald Trump and the Ukraine president Zelenskyy on the 8th of November, reaffirming the Tesla owner’s future as the most influential civilian in the US.