For many reasons, in January 2025, Donald Trump will return to the White House. Fasten your seatbelts because, this time, he will try to push through his agenda with yes-men and yes-women. Republicans will control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives (not fully over yet, GOP majority is my prediction) and the Supreme Court.
On July 22, 2024 I wrote that Democrats should chose a centrist with executive experience who can win over independents and moderate Republican. Instead, Joe Biden, unfit to lead, lost without a teleprompter, de facto chose his VP Kamala Harris as his successor without a Democratic primary. She decided to run to the left and chose a running mate from the left, the blue state Governor Tim Walz from Minnesota, instead of a swing state governor.
In addition, when asked on The View, whether she would have done anything differently from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris fully embraced the Biden administration record: “there is not a thing that comes to mind”. What? What about Afghanistan handed over to the Taliban? In subsequent interviews and appearances, she only timidly differentiated herself from the unpopular president and his unpopular policies. From there on, it was easy for Trump to present a possible Harris presidency as Biden’s second term.
Kamala Harris was right to point out that Donald Trump pushed Republican lawmakers to kill the bipartisan immigration bill simply because solving the problem would have reduced his election chances. Subsequently, President Biden acted and issued tough regulations which greatly reduced immigration. Why did Democrats not do that much earlier?
When polls suggested that a significant minority of black men would vote for Trump, Kamala Harris came foward with the “Opportunity Agenda For Black Men”. This was microtargeting, favoring an ethnic minority. This repelled many other voters. And many black people also saw through this agenda as a cheap election maneuver.
When Trump says outrageous, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist things, unlike traditional politicians, he gets away with it because voters tell themselves it’s just the showman from The Apprentice. On August 12, 2024 NPR wrote that, reportedly Donald Trump had told 30,573 lies during his four years in office.
In European countries with multi-party systems, the extreme right occupies anti-vaccin, anti-transgender, anti-woke and conspiracy theory positions. In the two-party system in the United States, some Republicans champion those sentiments. The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who polled around 20% earlier in the race but later was on the decline, asked the Democrats to get a job in their future administration in exchange for his support. They (rightly) declined. Trump gladly accepted the offer of the former Democrat RFK Jr.
Donald Trump showed his counterpunch and showman qualities when he worked at McDonald’s for a few minutes to respond to Kamala Harris’ unsubstantiated claim that she had worked at the fast food joint as a young woman. After the xenophobic Puerto Rico “garbage” remark by the Trump supporting comic Tony Hinchcliffe at the presidential candidate’s Madison Square Garden rally, Kamala Harris seemed to get the upper hand. Many famous Puerto Ricans such as Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny and others came forward in support of Kamala Harris. But then Joe Biden made one of his famous “gaffes” and called Trump supporters “garbage”. This echoed the 2008 remark by Barack Obama regarding “flyover country” Republican voters who “cling to guns or religion”, and Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” statement at 2016 Democratic fundraiser event.
Again, Donald Trump was quick to respond and, the next day, showed up in a MAGA-branded garbage truck in the swing state Wisconsin, dressed as a garbage man. His counterpunch qualities, presented with a dose of humor, surely resonated with Republican voters.
In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Kamala Harris marked a good point when she said in a speech: “… I was elected attorney general of California. And before that, district attorney of San Francisco. And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. All that to say — (laughter and applause) — in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds — (laughter and applause) — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.” It was a race between a former prosecutor and attorney, facing a convicted felon, who is still facing several lawsuits.
In 1973, Trump was accused by the Justice Department of violations of the Fair Housing Act in the operation of 39 buildings in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Black “testers” were denied apartments, while a white tester would be offered an apartment. Representing Trump, the shady lawyer Roy Cohn filed a counter-suit against the government for $100 million, asserting that the charges were irresponsible and baseless. A federal judge threw out the countersuit. Trump settled the charges out of court in 1975 without admitting guilt. Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, said that the housing case was “a classic example” of Trump being “a counterpuncher”. Trump learned from Roy Cohn, if you lose, you declare victory.
Donald Trump has repeatedly cheated craftsmen, contractors, small business owners, failed to pay them in full. Nevertheless, the shady billionaire successfully presents himself as a man of the people. His multiple bankruptcies are legendary.
In 1988, he bought New York City’s Plaza Hotel for $390 million. By 1992, the hotel’s debt reached $550 million. The PolitFact factcheckers noted, based on ABC and the New York Times that, as a result of the bankruptcy, in exchange for easier terms on which to pay off the debts, Trump relinquished a 49% stake in the Plaza to a total of six lenders. Trump remained the hotel’s CEO, but it was merely a gesture — he didn’t earn a salary and had no say in the hotel’s day-to-day operations.
In 1990 opened the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, funded by Trump with $1 billion. By 1991, the casino was already $3 billion in debt, while Trump had racked up roughly $900 million in personal liabilities. The casino filed for Chapter 11 reorganization.
In 2004, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts filed for bankruptcy again. His casinos — including the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina and Trump Plaza casinos in Atlantic City and a riverboat casino in Indiana — were an estimated $1.8 billion in debt. Trump agreed to reduce his share in the company from 47% to 27% in a restructuring plan. He remained the company’s largest single shareholder and in charge of its operations.
In 2008, Trump Entertainment Resorts — formerly Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts — was hit hard by the recession, missed a $53.1 million bond interest payment in December 2008. Trump resigned as the company’s chairman and had his corporate stake in the company reduced to 10%. The company continued to use Trump’s name in licensing.
Donald Trump has faced many real estate lawsuits, personal defamation lawsuits, business tax disputes. He has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In the case of the writer E. Jean Carroll, in 2023, two suits resulted in a total of $88.3 million in damages awarded to Carroll; both cases are under appeal.
At the end of 2022 the parent company of Trump’s businesses, The Trump Organization, was convicted on 17 criminal charges. In 2013, in a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Trump was accused of defrauding over 5,000 people of $40 million for the opportunity to learn Trump’s real estate investment techniques at “Trump University”, which operated from 2005 to 2011. Over 2,000 students sought and received course refunds. In 2014, in a separate class action civil suit against Trump University, a San Diego federal judge allowed claimants in California, Florida, and New York to proceed. In 2016, Trump was found to have defrauded students and forced to pay $25 million in restitution.
There are many more shady business failures by and lawsuits against the president-elect. To make a long story short. Donald Trump should be behind bars of either a prison or a mental institution. He is a serial fraudster, a rapist and felon who tried to overturn the result of a free and fair election. The U.S. Congress and the justice system have not done their job. As a result, the free world finds itself with a dubious leader who has a soft spot for dictators and autocrats, ranging from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Viktor Orban, to name just a few. If he could, he would govern as one himself. General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and President Biden (until he retired in 2023) called Trump “fascist to the core”, and General John Kelly, a former chief of staff under Trump, said that Trump wanted to rule as a dictator.
The Republican party will soon control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. That gives Donald Trump a lot of power, notably given the fact that, this time, he will most likely govern with yes-men and yes-women. Checks and balances will be massively reduced.
Clearly more men voted for Donald Trump, clearly more women for Kamala Harris. Voters with lower education went for the Republican candidate, voters with higher eduction for the Democratic hopeful. Trump could win more black and latino votes as in the past. Turnout among his base was larger than the turnout of the Democratic base. In the end, Trump not only won the electoral college, but also the popular vote. With 94% of the vote counted, Trump has won 301 of the 538 Electoral College votes; 270 needed to win. Popular vote: Trump has won some 73,4 million votes, Kamala Harris only roughly 69,1 million votes.
Kamala Harris is not a holy woman, but in comparison with the misogynist, xenophobe, racist, isolationist, protectionist who loves tariffs, shady businessman, notorious liar, propagator of fake news and conspiracy theories Donald Trump, she was the better option. Despite the four years of chaos from January 2017 to January 2021, the majority of U.S. American voters opted for Donald Trump. If ever he should bankrupt the United States, the ones who voted for him in a free and fair election will have to blame themselves.
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Donald Trump vs. Lady Liberty at a political carneval in Germany in 2017. Photo copyright © Grossplastiken.de Jacques Tilly.
On top of this page: Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, October 6, 2017. Official White House photograph by Shealah Craighead.
Article added on November 8, 2024 at 14:38 German time. Detail added at 14:58 (House election not fully over yet; GOP majority is my prediction). Detail added at 15:42 (Biden unfit to lead, lost without a teleprompter).
