Trump 2.0

Donald Trump will move back into the White House in the coming weeks following his victory in the populist vote of the 2024 US election.

Donald Trump ‘declared victory in the 2024 US election shortly before 8am UK time. In a speech made before the result was official, the star of Home Alone 2 said: “This will forever be remembered as the day the people regained control.”

He finished this speech, in which he name checked podcast host Joe Rogan and Elon Musk as well as others, with a rendition of the YMCA by The Village People. The votes across the country were still being confirmed, but the 270 threshold edged closer for Trump who will now start his second term as President, becoming the first in history to get a second term that is not consecutive.

“God saved my life for a reason,” Trump told a crowd and the world which was waking up to the news. This of course referenced the attempt on his life made during a speech in Pennsylvania back in July. It’s impossible to say how much this changed some peoples perspectives of him, but it’s fair to say he has used it to his advantage (not that the attempted assassination of any President/ candidate should be advocated for).

Across the political divide, Kamala Harris and the Democrats will have a period of soul searching ahead of them. The party had a chance to be a true opposite alternative to the Republicans and take an aim at the elites in America who enjoy luxury lives whilst so many ordinary people suffer. Trump’s rolling out of tech billionaire Musk paints this picture in luminous colours for the world to see.

Yet the Democrats didn’t do this- and instead have fallen short in a race that has been won on a populist vote once again. Trump leads his campaigns and work as President as if it is a TV show, and his career as a TV personality puts him on news channels and gets him column inches across the globe. He also knows his supporters would go to war for him, which was evident when fanning the flames that led to the storming of the Capitol building in 2021.

Trump claims to say he will heal America, but from the outside looking in the states are in for four years of being led by a man who would shaft hard working Americans at the first whiff of a chance. Make America Great Again will be rolled out as a meaningless jingoistic slogan at any event involving the president, and he will target minority groups including the trans community as quickly as possible.

America has voted in a convicted felon, a misogynist and a man who said to ‘grab women by the pussy’ because they ‘let you do anything. They’ve made sure a man who openly mocked a disabled reporter and one who told donors that he will ‘crush’ pro-Palestinain protestors. The policies of Trump are clear and the nation will feel the full brunt of these in the coming months. An addition to this would be his refusal to believe actual factual climate change information and his keenness to ‘eradicate’ the Department of Education.

The patriotic overdrive of a right-wing government is something that many Trump supporters will be backing whole heartedly. Yet they only need to look south towards Argentina to see how this can go badly wrong. Economic and social disability has gripped the nation under President Javier Milei, who also took over with swathes of support.

Trump will be sworn into office in January 2025 off the back of a comfortable election win. What he priorities and does next will soon become clear, and the impact of this victory on America will no doubt make it another unpredictable case study for the next four years.

As for the Democrats, their long overdue refresh of senior positions has become even more glaringly obvious. Trump has plenty of control now that the Republicans once again control the senate, and the Democrats step into 2025 with four years of both holding Trump accountable and also plotting a way to successfully regain power in 2028.