Americans Just Elected a Fascist to the White House
Donald Trump was elected president of the United States early Wednesday morning, making him the first convicted felon who will be sworn into office.
Trump beat Kamala Harris after he won Wisconsin, putting his total number of votes in the Electoral College at 277, surpassing the 270 required to clinch the presidency. Harris earned a total of 224 electoral votes.
The president-elect has promised to be a dictator “on day one,” close the U.S. borders, and enact the largest mass deportation scheme in U.S. history, which could lead to millions of people across the country—including families and children—being displaced, and forced out.
Trump enthusiastically made racist attacks against undocumented immigrants the centerpiece of his grievance campaign. For months, he painted a false trend of “migrant crime,” touting a fake correlation between undocumented immigration and rates of violent crime. He spread lies about legal immigrants eating their neighbors’ pets and foreign gangs violently overtaking apartment buildings, and falsely claimed that hundreds of American towns and cities had been “invaded and conquered” by immigrants.
Trump has promised to address inflation by imposing extreme tariffs on all foreign goods, which market experts say will all but demolish the American economy. While Trump promised to lower costs, companies are already preparing to hike prices to offset the economic turmoil caused by his tariffs. Consumers are currently enjoying the lowest inflation rates in four years.
Trump has made scores of other “day one” promises, including banning transgender athletes from sports teams that match their gender identity, repealing Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, and cutting funds to schools teaching “critical race theory.” While not all of these goals are realistic, they present an image of what Trump plans for his second term in the White House.
His forthcoming administration promises the likes of billionaire technocrat Elon Musk, anti-vaxxer and whale decapitator Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and even far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer in its ranks.
Trump has called his political opponents “vermin,” and those who disagree with him “the enemy within.” He called Democrats “evil,” “sick,” and “vicious” while feigning outrage over their “divisive” and “disgusting” rhetoric. Trump has threatened to turn the U.S. military on American citizens and imprison anyone who prevented him from taking office.
In the last six months, a 78-year-old Trump has shown significant cognitive decline, delivering rambling, incoherent diatribes in lieu of stump speeches. He appeared tired, slurred his words, confused subjects, and strayed so far off topic that his campaign had to invent a term to spin the verbal diarrhea: the weave. While attacking Harris, who is more than 10 years his junior, over her mental fitness, he has refused to share his own medical records.
While Trump’s victory casts many aspects of American life into utter chaos, it will also do the same to his many ongoing legal battles, which are likely to draw to a close, at least for now.
Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felony charges in his hush-money case earlier this year, was tentatively scheduled for sentencing on November 26. His attorneys had requested that their client’s conviction be thrown out in light of the Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity for “official acts,” and want to see the charges against Trump dropped or have some evidence omitted in a new trial. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan is expected to make a decision on that request on November 12. He may choose to follow through with his sentencing, which will likely be appealed.
While special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case is expected to continue moving forward in the short term, Trump has promised to fire Smith on his first day in office, and even threatened to deport him. Even if he doesn’t, whoever Trump appoints as attorney general, upon entering office will sink that case. The same fate is likely for Trump’s classified documents case, which Smith has appealed after it was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon in July.
Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, where he was indicted as part of a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the state’s election results, has been delayed until December, and will probably be stayed until he leaves office in 2028.