The horrible fact is, Donald J Trump is again.
After successful in opposition to his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, he’s as soon as once more the president-elect of the US. He’ll return to the White Home this coming January, precisely 4 years after he incited an rebel to stay there after dropping the 2020 election. This can make him solely the second man in historical past to serve nonconsecutive phrases as US president (the opposite one was Nineteenth-century Democrat Grover Cleveland). He’s additionally on monitor to change into the primary Republican to win the favored vote in a presidential election in 20 years.
Trump has been impeached, confronted a number of legal trials and obtained felony convictions, however, ultimately, none of this mattered to his supporters.
He has made one of the crucial beautiful political comebacks in American historical past.
All which means the world won’t solely witness a repeat of his first time period in energy. There’s additionally each cause to consider, as soon as again in workplace, he’ll construct an administration rather more oppressive, racist and consequential than the one he led in 2017-2021.
Trump’s second inauguration on January 20 will unleash a far-right, semi-autocratic regime, and an assault on what stays of consultant democracy within the US on a federal stage.
A couple of weeks earlier than the election, Trump offered his fact-free model of an American previous as his imaginative and prescient for the nation’s future.
“You recognize, our nation within the Nineties was … most likely the wealthiest it ever was, as a result of it was a system of tariffs,” he mentioned. “And we had a president – you already know McKinley, proper? He was actually an excellent businessman, and he took in billions of {dollars} on the time.”
Overlook the truth that William McKinley didn’t change into president till 1897. And by no means thoughts that then-US Consultant McKinley helped lead the US into the Panic of 1893 – one of the crucial extreme monetary crises in US historical past – as his tariffs invoice harm the economic system in the course of a 20-year interval of financial stagnation for many People.
What’s vital right here is that Trump appears to view this era in American historical past – marked by excessive poverty, unchecked racist violence and widespread struggling at residence and overseas – as a chief instance of misplaced American greatness.
Trump’s plan for the US centres round old-style laissez-faire economics, isolationism, and white male supremacy – an actual try at bringing the US again to the Nineties.
On the international coverage entrance, Trump 2.0 will see an exacerbation of present insurance policies that already proved damaging and dear.
The primary presidential time period of Trump, and that of Joe Biden after him, had been marked by an insistent refusal by Washington to interact in any effort to uphold worldwide legislation and defend the rules-based order the US helped construct after World Warfare II. Below Trump 2.0, this purposeful disengagement, which had horrific penalties internationally, will intensify into a brand new period of American isolationism, and certain pave the way in which for brand spanking new conflicts and energy struggles.
Trump has hinted that, as president, he wouldn’t help Ukraine in its ongoing battle effort in opposition to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “That doesn’t imply I don’t need to assist him as a result of I really feel very badly for these individuals. However he ought to by no means have let that battle begin. The battle’s a loser,” Trump not too long ago mentioned in reference to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s war-time president. There are widespread fears that Trump’s reluctance to again Ukraine on this battle might result in losses on the battlefield and on the diplomatic entrance that would show devastating not just for Ukraine, however the safety and stability of all its European neighbours.
And with regards to Palestine, Trump seems in favour of giving Israel much more freedom to proceed with its genocide than Biden, who did subsequent to nothing to attempt to cease the carnage. “I’m glad that Bibi determined to do what he needed to do” regardless of Biden’s makes an attempt to restrain him, Trump mentioned final month in reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slaughtering tens of 1000’s of Palestinian civilians, supposedly to defeat Hamas in Gaza.
This non-interventionist strategy will seemingly embolden rogue regimes internationally to finish any pretence of adherence to worldwide legislation and the liberal order. Trump 2.0 will usher in a brand new period of renewed devastation to nations and communities already affected by battle and general geopolitical instability.
On the financial entrance, Trump says he’ll introduce larger tariffs on items from China and different nations, all in an effort, supposedly, to assist the US economic system. Besides on this period of globalisation, such tariffs will seemingly have a chilling impact on US funds. Not less than one examine on Trump’s tariffs plan means that, if the coverage is carried out, the median earnings of People would drop between two and 4 p.c and unemployment will rise, notably within the manufacturing sector. There would additionally seemingly be a world financial ripple impact, inflicting larger inflation charges, inventory market volatility, and commerce wars.
Domestically, he’ll eagerly implement the Heritage Basis’s much-feared Challenge 2025, and use it as a blueprint to make sure that the US stays a secure haven for unbridled, corrupt capitalism and the wealthy white males and megacorporations who profit from such corruption.
In the meantime, the marginalised teams Trump recognized throughout his marketing campaign as America’s enemies – undocumented immigrants, Arab and Muslim People, transgender people, amongst others – will face elevated oppression and discrimination. As soon as once more, white male supremacy will brazenly change into the legislation of the land.
“We are going to get them out of our nation. I’ll ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas just like the Gaza Strip, and we’ll seal our border and produce again the journey ban,” Trump mentioned at an occasion marking the primary anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 terror assault on Israel, referring to his notorious “Muslim ban”.
In 2017, Trump directed his threats of deportation and entry bans particularly at individuals from Muslim-majority international locations who he referred to as “jihadists”. However all through his 2024 marketing campaign, he made it clear, time and again, that his ambition is to deport and ban all undocumented migrants, and some other brown and Black migrant and refugee he can, whether or not they’re from Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa or the Center East.
Below Trump 2.0, with Republicans seemingly controlling each chambers of the US Congress, American girls will face elevated reproductive repression. A nationwide abortion ban shall be inside attain, one which Trump mentioned ought to begin at 15 weeks into any being pregnant. Regulatory limits on entry to contraception will even be a probable state of affairs. Transgender people, in the meantime, can anticipate laws that may ban federal {dollars} getting used for gender-affirming healthcare, and even threaten medical doctors with legal motion for offering such care.
Your entire construction of the federal civil service will even face vital threats. Below Challenge 2025, Trump and Congress would remove the US Division of Schooling (DOE) and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They’d privatise the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), the Nationwide Flood Insurance coverage Program run by the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA), the federal housing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and all federally subsidised scholar loans.
Trump himself has mentioned that he would go after main authorities officers personally after he takes the oath of workplace on January 20. “Oh, it’s really easy. It’s really easy. I might hearth him inside two seconds,” Trump mentioned final month about particular counsel Jack Smith.
Smith has been prosecuting the now president-elect for the January 6 rebel and the mishandling of labeled paperwork since 2023. Smith isn’t the one official in Trump’s crosshairs. In response to NPR, Trump has issued greater than 100 threats to his opponents, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and former US Consultant Liz Cheney.
Trump will now be capable of get away from his conviction in New York, his varied trials and lawsuits throughout the US, and his money owed within the US and overseas, presumably even by way of pardoning himself for all his actions since 2016.
Make no mistake. Trump’s upcoming second time period in workplace will see efforts in any respect ranges to remake the US right into a conservative, evangelical, capitalist-theocracy. The approaching 4 years shall be marked by persecution, oppression, retribution, and pointless loss of life from pressured pregnancies, mass deportations, nonsensical public well being selections, and preventable wars.
America goes again to Trump. The US and the world ought to be ready for the second coming of Trump and the brand new world order he’ll attempt to create. The world ought to put together, and resist.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
