America is elusive. Donald Trump, no. But as ethically compromised as he may be, the 78-year-old tycoon is the one that a majority of voters wanted to find. It was after 2 a.m., Thursday, November 6, when the latter entered the stage of campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach (Florida) to claim his victory in the presidential election. His voice a little hoarse, the billionaire launched into a long, disjointed statement. Equal to himself, all improvisation. Donald Trump thanked voters for this “extraordinary honor” et “an unprecedented and powerful mandate”, promising “a new golden age of America”. Even though his victory was not yet confirmed, notably by the Associated Press agency, he already announced his conquest, still hypothetical at this stage, of 315 voters, well beyond the fateful mark of 270.
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After Hillary Clinton's defeat by Donald Trump in 2016, a form of trauma accompanied the Democrats for a long time. Joe Biden's victory in 2020 made them believe that the danger was over. On Tuesday, the memory of 2016 hit the Democratic camp. Donald Trump found himself a hair's breadth away from crossing the threshold of 270 electors on Wednesday morning and obtaining, four years after his departure from the White House, a second presidential term, an unprecedented performance since the end of the 19th century.e century, with Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
To do this, he had defied the predictions, expanded his base, conquered North Carolina and Georgia, the first two pivotal states counted, then Pennsylvania, around 2 a.m. He was also in the lead in the other key states with unfinished counting, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, envisioning a grand slam that no one had dared to predict. It was a collective disaster for the Democrats, a terrible legacy for Joe Biden and a humiliation for Kamala Harris. The shift to the right of the United States is brutal, unexpected in its scale, worrying for its democracy and its traditional allies in the world. The Europeans risk finding themselves left to their own devices, Russia has every reason to rejoice and China to envisage a new phase of trade tensions with its only systemic rival.
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As the hours passed, the indicators turned green for Donald Trump, even if the majority in the House of Representatives remained pending, unlike the Senate. In the popular vote, Donald Trump was – for the first time – nearly five million votes ahead of his opponent when he took the floor. An incredible reward for a campaign marked by xenophobia, denying climate change, drawing with caricatures an America in free fall. But it is also the consecration of the themes retained by Donald Trump: inflation, the migration crisis. The first may have been contained, but it has caused havoc in low-income households. Joe Biden took too long to respond to the second, with decrees. A detailed analysis of voters could confirm that workers, precarious employees, now live in the Republican Party.
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