The day after Donald Trump’s emphatic triumph in the US presidential election stunned the world, the Financial Times US national editor and chief commentator explains what this means for America and for the rest of the world. Edward Luce talks about how Trump will be as president the second time round. With the Republican Party winning back control of the Senate and projected to possibly retain the House, what does this clean sweep mean? There will be few, if any, checks and balances on Trump’s power, so is he now free to transform America as he’s often threatened to do?
Luce talks about some of the threats Trump made during the campaign to prosecute people who he claims cheated in 2020 and pardon those who stormed Capitol Hill in January 2021. Will he carry out his threatened mass deportation of possibly 11 million people considered illegal aliens? And how committed will he be to Project 25 ideas which include replacing Washington’s top bureaucracy with Trump loyalists and dismantling the Departments of Justice and Education, the FBI and the Federal Reserve?
Speaking about the world, is Trump committed to withdrawing America from the Paris Climate Agreement? Will he seriously weaken NATO by undermining the Article 5 guarantee? Will he impose a 20% tariff on all imports and perhaps 60% on Chinese exports to America, thus triggering a trade war?
