Warning from the USA: "Yes, Biden won - but it is and will be Trump's America"

Many thought Trump's victory in 2016 was a fluke.

Nobody can say that anymore: it remains “Trump's USA”, says the editor-in-chief of the “Foreign Policy” magazine in this article.

• Donald Trump

  lost the

  US election

  - but the outgoing president is unlikely to disappear from the scene.

• The outcome of the race against

  Joe Biden

  shows: The 2016 election was no coincidence, on the contrary.

• The

  United States

  will probably continue "Trumps US" remain, the editor commented the magazine

  Foreign Policy

  ,

  Jonathan Tepperman

  .

• This article is available for the first time in 

  German

   - it was first published on November 4th by the magazine 

  Foreign Policy

  .

Washington

- It was only after days of back and forth over the counting of votes and disturbing uncertainty that there was finally a result - at least approximately.

has won enough votes in Electoral College to become the next President of the United States.

As chaotic as the week surrounding the election was - with motorcades like

, the clear failure of the polls and various unfounded declarations of victory by

- it would be a mistake, one of the

due to all the tumult and legal scuffles

Losing sight of

: how close Trump is to victory.

The choice did not bring the clear result in Biden's favor, as predicted by many experts, but was rather close.

Trump: Almost half of US voters choose a white nationalist and chronic liar

This begs the question of what the election result actually means for the country, apart from the answer to the question of who will be the next president.

As possible explanations for Trump's unexpectedly strong final spurt, the experts

the

, or their appreciation of his supposed economic successes - at least until the pandemic brought them down.

But these

.

Above all, they do not explain why, after four years of scandals, corruption and failure after failure,

still

approve of

an authoritarian,

and

who spectacularly screwed up the worst health crisis of the century.

Trump's brutality, racism and sexism

, his lack of curiosity and knowledge about the government and the world, his disdain for traditional American values ​​such as

, his eagerness to tear down control institutions at home and abroad - institutions that are not flawless but have created so much peace and prosperity over the years, all of which voters either knowingly ignored or willingly accepted.

In 2016, some Republicans voted for Trump because they didn't know much about him or because they hoped the office's responsibilities would turn him into a statesman.

Nobody can say that today.

.

Trumpism in the USA - election shows: 2016 was no coincidence

Add to that the fact that Trump won around seven million more votes this time than in 2016, that he has improved his standing with Latinos and Blacks, and that the

could well hold its majority in the Senate, there is only one left Conclusion:

.

Biden may have won the election, but we all now live in Trump's America.

Why am I saying that?

Well, first of all, the strong performance of Trump and the Republican Party means that Trump, electoral defeat or not, is not going to disappear from the scene and the

going to

.

Before the election,

seemed

to be waning.

More and more Republicans argued, albeit quietly, that their party was in need of reform and that four more years of Trump would mean ruin for them at the polls.

Even die-hard Trump supporters like Senator John Cornyn began to turn their backs on the president.

But now that Trump's supporters have done so well - especially those who, like Senator Lindsey Graham, haven't left their leader - it's

that many Republicans will

.

Trump will stay even after being voted out - as a twitterer, talk show star or media mogul

With his party and a significant section of the population behind him, an empowered Trump - as a

or media mogul - will continue to attract a great deal of attention and support.

He will use this to tyrannize and undermine the Democrats, to drive the Republicans through public disgrace to resist Biden in all respects, and the same grouchy, counterfactual "Us-against-the-experts-and-all- others ”message of the past four years.

My take: Many thought 2016 was a fluke.

That's impossible to argue now.

https://t.co/CdZ7xw8FCE

- Jonathan Tepperman (@j_tepperman) November 5, 2020

His speech on Thursday after the election, peppered with baseless allegations of electoral fraud and countless lies, showed the tone Trump will continue to use.

As Brad Parscale, the president's first campaign manager at the election,

told

the

, "It's not that his Twitter account or his ability to manage a news cycle is no longer there."

Meanwhile, the

- former Republican officials who are committed to the democratic process, competent governance, the importance of institutions and at least a foundation of national unity, and who yearn to reform the party - will remain or remain a fringe group leave the party entirely.

The 2020 US election will lead to “difficult times”

And the consequences for the country will be devastating.

If the Republicans

to hold

onto the

- which is likely - the political paralysis of the past four years will persist.

Even presidents with a majority in Congress rarely manage to get more than one or two major issues to deal with before the next

election, in which they often lose support in parliament.

It's hard to imagine that a President Biden who lacks the full support of Congress will get this far - no matter how good he is as a dealmaker.

And so it is clear that difficult times lie ahead of us.

Biden may try to change the tone in Washington, but the years of

have shown that despite Biden's lifelong commitment to constructive cooperation between both parties and his still beneficial relationship in the Senate, the chances of compromising are close to zero as long as he is the

remain

.

A

- a government in which the president's party does not hold a majority in parliament - is likely to continue inaction on huge

(although Biden could make some improvements here thanks to his executive powers) and the economy ( where he cannot achieve much without the Congress).

Should Biden fail to pass major pandemic relief programs and other government spending, markets will spin and financial instability will increase.

Without coordinated action from all parts of the U.S. government, the pandemic will get much worse.

Donald Trump: USA will remain a "country of self-sustaining dysfunction" - bad cards for Biden

So

- a country that has just missed its best chance of clearly dumping it - will continue to be a country of self-sustaining dysfunction.

Anger over the government's failure to help, or Republican anger over

government

to help, will only exacerbate the already worrying polarization of the country, further reduce opportunities for cooperation, and potentially lead to violence.

Biden's goal of

the

and governing so that all come together now seems very ambitious.

Obama's attempts to do the same only fueled republican

and drove a large

the population into the dangerous fantasy

of so-called

(a conspiracy theory that questions the legitimacy of Obama's presidency, as it was allegedly not born in the United States) and other conspiracy theories (some of which eventually spawned the QAnon movement).

Now that

with all its hopelessness and abomination, has been endorsed by much of the country, it is hard to imagine that a President Biden would manage to heal the country.

But it was utterly inconceivable that a President Trump would even try.

By Johathan Tepperman

Jonathan Tepperman

 is the editor-in-chief of

magazine

This article was first published in English on November 4, 2020 in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of 

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