Well folks, it’s official. The orange man is back, and this time he’s got a bigger mandate than ever. Donald Trump has somehow won the 2024 presidential election, leaving many of us questioning our entire reality. But alas, this is our new reality.
So, instead of spiralling, we spoke to U.S. politics expert Dr. John Hart, to help make sense of what the hell just happened and what we can expect from Trump 2.0.
When does Trump actually become President?
Mark your calendars (or don’t, if you’re also in denial) – Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. That gives us a few months to stock up on coping mechanisms before the show really kicks off.
What will Trump 2.0 look like?
Buckle up, because Trump’s campaign promises for his second term make his first term look like a warm-up act.
Hart puts it bluntly: “The campaign that Trump ran this year was really dark, vulgar, full of a vengeance and was just awful, and he has a much stronger mandate for doing what he said he would do than he did in 2016.”
Some of Trump’s greatest hits from the campaign trail include:
- Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants
- “Drill, baby, drill” energy policy
- Tariffs on all European goods
- Potentially putting political rivals in front of firing squads (yikes)
Dr. Hart added, “Not only has he won in the Electoral College, and it looks like he’s actually got a majority of the popular vote, which was unexpected. So I think he will think he’s got a mandate for doing all the terrible things that he said he would do.”
Trump’s second term looks like it’s going to be more bonkers than his first
Based on the rhetoric we’ve seen online, it looks like we’re going to experience much of the same nightmare we’ve experienced before. But unfortunately, it looks like this time could be even more disastrous.
“It all depends whether you take the view that a lot of what Trump says is a lot of hot air, and that he won’t act on it and people around him will stop him acting on it or check him in one way or another, or whether you think the lesson he learned from his first term of office was that he gave in too regularly,” Dr. Hart explained.
In other words, the lesson Trump may have taken from his first term is that compromise is for losers and to go full steam ahead with his most extreme policies. Plus, with a potential Republican majority in both houses of Congress and a conservative Supreme Court, the checks and balances that somewhat restrained him last time might be weaker than ever.
Hart has predicted some likely scenarios.” I think he’d be very unwise to go ahead with the kinds of things he was talking about in the campaign, but there are clearly some things he will do.
“His opposition on the environment, on climate change, on drilling for oil in Alaska… I’m almost certain he will go ahead with that. I’m almost certain he will go ahead with some form of closing down the border almost immediately.”
Dr. Hart doesn’t sugarcoat the potential risks: “When you’ve got a president in the White House that leans to war, towards autocracy, the circumstances for a period of autocratic leadership, anti-Democratic leadership, eroding some of the fundamental constitutional principles is all there.”
What about Kamala? What does she do now?
After a brief stint as arguably the most prominent woman in American politics, Kamala Harris is now joining the ‘almost-presidents’ club. While she’ll likely remain a prominent voice in the Democratic Party, her immediate future is uncertain.
“There’s never been a case of where an incumbent president for re-election pulled out at the last minute in this way,” explained Hart.
“And I think [Kamala] did very well in the circumstances. It shouldn’t handicap her from pursuing a political career, and she’s probably young enough to do something else, but what that will be is pretty hard to say. She can’t just step back into the Senate seat that she gave up when she became Vice president.”
He went on to explain that she still has Vice President duties to finish off and then after some time she may return to the Senate, focus on her political action committee, or maybe take a well-deserved vacation.
The fight doesn’t stop here
It’s obviously terrifying thinking about what awaits for us in 2025, but the only thing that we can do is keep fighting the good fight. That means being vocal about holding politicians accountable, getting involved in local politics and actively taking part in our own democracy, so we in Australia don’t end up with an orange man of our own in power.
“It’s an absolute mess, Dr Hart concluded. “I’m quite fearful, but the only thing we can do is keep going.”
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