Viva jingoism and machismo viva!

YES, I was quite downhearted when I learned on Wednesday morning that Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential election by a landslide.

No, I am not an American, and no, I couldn’t care less about the fight between the two major parties there. I was not particularly emotionally invested in Kamala Harris either – she and Pres. Joe Biden's complicity in the genocide in Gaza had offended me.

But because America is so influential in my world of experience, and its media so overwhelming, what happens there affects me intensely. Just as the war in Gaza affects me, even though I am neither a Palestinian nor an Israeli.

Trump has become an international symbol of nearly everything that goes against my grain. And now the voters of the world’s most powerful country, including most Christians, have condoned and rewarded him. He is going to be “the leader of the free world".

His victory is a paradigm shift in the world I experience around me.

Trumpism no longer refers to toxic masculinity, bigotry, filth, thuggishness, crudeness and disdain for the truth; it is now the new normal. “Speak your mind" is now the highest value.

Worldwide, and certainly in South Africa, his election will be seen as licence to say or do things that until recently were not tolerated in civilised conversation. Trump is going to move the needle.

Everyone who stands guard against prejudice, racism, sexism and homophobia is now officially “woke” and the despicable enemy of the people. “Liberal” is now officially a severe slur, like rapist or pedophile.

The narrow-minded, the bigots, the ethnic nationalists, and the kragdadiges are now king.

It is usually not enough to only look at a leader’s statements, but rather at how the leader’s followers understand and experience them.

Early Wednesday morning, for example, a certain Blanko on Twitter/X let me know:

Or as British media personality Alex Philips put it:

And in South Africa, the old reactionaries saw Trump's victory as a personal victory. Ernst Roets (head of the “Afrikaner Foundation”) even made a podcast (in English, of all things) about it with Steve Hofmeyr:

I am sure not every American who voted for Trump approves of all his transgressions, crudeness and lies. Many probably just voted for him because they believe they will be better off financially, and for others, the fear of a flood of immigrants was a big consideration.

For many, Kamala Harris simply did not have enough gravitas, and many did not want to see a woman as president. Perhaps the Democrats already lost the battle on June 27 with Biden's weak performance during the presidential debate – and the assassination attempt on Trump.

Very few thought about what he would mean for the established international order, and what impact it would have on international law if he threw Ukraine to the wolves and allowed Vladimir Putin to keep a large part of the country. Few probably thought of the future of Nato.

Because Trump has been behaving this way for so long, it has become normal, and many genuinely good people were even willing to forgive him for attempting to overthrow the last election results by force. He can now get away with even more proverbial murder.

If we judge Trump by his statements during the campaign, he is more a tyrant than a democrat. We will know by January 5 whether this will indeed be the case.

What we do know is that during his first term, he had experienced officials who kept him more or less on track – and nearly every one of them has warned against him in recent months – and this time around only loyalists surround him.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are now Republican, and the highest court is stacked with his loyalists. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is on his side. So too are Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Joe Rogan.

As the Financial Times put it yesterday: “What is in no doubt is that Trump will bestride Washington as a colossus.”

I am glad I live 13 000 km from Washington, and Trump is not going to pay much attention to our “shithole” little country. At least we have so far managed to keep the cheap populists and demagogues out of power.

♦ VWB ♦

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