The American people have made a clear choice: They elected Donald Trump as the next president, and have given control of the U.S. Senate, and probably the House of Representatives, to the MAGAfied Republicans as well.
One plausible way to read this election is as a protest vote against the Democrats as the incumbent party, reflecting a broad feeling that the country is headed in the wrong direction and something must change on a fundamental level. Ultimately, Donald Trump was able to channel the public’s grievances into his own personal grievances and ride a wave of populist rage into the White House for a second time.
Trump has promised to be a dictator on “day one.” He will most certainly rule as an autocrat who will seek revenge and retribution on his “enemies,” meaning anyone or any group who opposes him or the MAGA movement. The right-wing extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that Trump and his successors are de facto monarchs who are, in every meaningful sense, above the law. There will be few, if any, institutional checks and balances on Trump's second term.
It sounds oxymoronic to call someone an “elected dictator,” but the American people are about to find out it is not. Trump's voters and supporters did this to themselves. Many of them will soon feel the negative consequences and painful results of their decision to turn their backs on democracy and freedom very soon. The United States is now an undiscovered country, in the darkest possible sense.
Any public voice who suggests that everything is going to be fine and that panic or despair are unwarranted should not be taken seriously. That is projection and self-soothing behavior.
There are rumors and reports that senior military leaders are having informal discussions about what to do if President Trump issues illegal or unconstitutional orders regarding the suppression of dissent, the occupation of American cities, the execution of his plans for mass deportation or other efforts to crush “the enemy within.”
During his first term, Trump wanted to use the military to put down the nationwide protests of 2020 that erupted in response to the police murder of George Floyd. Thankfully, that never happened. Some reports suggest that military leaders put steps in place to limit Trump’s ability to order the use of nuclear weapons.
None of this, needless to say, is normal. American voters were repeatedly warned about the existential danger posed by Trump and his MAGA movement, and a majority of them chose to embrace it. What they will reap will likely be poisonous. In an attempt to make sense of Trump’s victory, our collective emotions in this time of trouble and dread, what this election reveals about American values and character, and what comes next when Trump takes power in January, I recently spoke with a range of experts.
Steven Beschloss is a journalist and author of several books, including "The Gunman and His Mother." His website is America, America.
It’s hard to overstate how much damage re-electing Trump will cause, not only to immigrants and other marginalized populations but also to governmental function, education, the environment, justice and more. I am doubtful that the majority who chose to reject America’s first female president and a woman of color fully grasped the scale of destruction that voting for Trump will unleash, but they soon will.
Many of his voters may have possessed false nostalgia about his first term and false assumptions that his policies would not primarily enrich the wealthiest among us. This is what happens when the right-wing media spreads propaganda, the mainstream media treated him like a legitimate candidate and concrete policies take the backseat to personality and feelings. I will never get over the fact that his criminal convictions, hateful rhetoric, blatant sexism, despicable demonizing of fellow humans and trashing of democracy failed to turn more Americans away from him, but this should permanently end the tired and wrong notion that “we” are better than this. The reckoning that needed to happen by the media in its normalizing of this man will now be replaced by the effort to hang on for dear life as the retribution begins. Yes, fellow Americans, it can happen here.
The ugly future can be seen with Trump’s people making threats and promises of no empathy and “rough justice,” statements like “your body, my choice,” threats of imprisonment for political opponents and prosecutors, and his promise that “We’re not messing around this time.” This is masks-off, hate-emboldened, raw anger, mixed with utter glee. But I take some solace and optimism in the initial pushback from state and local officials who are preparing their resistance. “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “You come for my people, you come through me.”
The acts of opposition to slow the deportation of undocumented immigrants and the demolition of our government will be important models for all of us who reject this authoritarian regime. I hope that this coming dark chapter will motivate good and decent people to build coalitions and do what they can to help individuals and communities in danger. Plenty will just want to disengage from the body politic, but that’s how Trump and his enablers succeed.
Jennifer Mercieca is a historian of American political rhetoric. She is a professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University and author of several books, including "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump."
Like a lot of the people I've talked to, I'm feeling quite nervous about the future. I study authoritarian regimes, and I know enough to be worried. The best we can do is connect with others (friends, family, neighbors) and try to make plans to stay safe and keep others safe.
Political science fundamentals would tell us that this was a "change" election year — people think the nation is heading in the wrong direction, the incumbent president is unpopular, and people's personal economic situation is stressed — but it was hard to know whetherpeople would prefer to "stay the course" or "change," because Trump was also a deeply unpopular president. What people chose to do was to stay home, largely.
We don't have the final vote count, but it looks like Trump got about 30% of the voting-eligible population, which is very similar to the 29% approval rating he had when he left office. In both 2020 and 2024, Trump got about 74 million votes — about 11 million Biden voters didn't vote for Harris. In short, it's not that Trump is more popular, it's that he's just as popular as he ever was. He has retained his base of support. Why? Largely because right-wing propaganda circulates so freely and is actually good, while factual information is locked behind paywalls. The Democratic Party doesn't have anything like the propaganda power that the Republican Party has. Trump has always used propaganda and rhetorical tricks effectively. This was the first "unreality" election — a lot of people couldn't figure out what was true or who to trust, and just gave up trying.
I'm not sure if the election and Trump’s victory were more of a referendum on the character of the American people or on the public's faith in government. I'm inclined to see the latter. People don't trust either political party, they don't trust mainstream media, they don't trust institutions, they don't trust corporations — they don't believe that anyone is looking out for them.
We are the leaders we are looking for. If ever there was a need for people who care about others, here it is. And while they think this is their time, it's actually ours. They will burn it down, but we will rebuild it based on democratic principles. Equality and justice will finally be ours. This nation was built on fascism, but with the promise of democracy. I've clung to the promise of democracy in the hope that small changes could nudge us there. But democracy carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. Voters chose to end democracy.
The fascists won temporarily, but fascism is for losers. They'll fail. They are con men and swindlers. And when they do lose, we make a real democracy. The kind they hate. Their "creative destruction" will be democracy rising. Just look at the opportunities! If you look into your heart, you know deep down that predatory capitalism has us all sick and has enabled a war and prison industry, that our society is configured in ways that divide and alienate us from what is our best nature, that the two-party system entrenches power. Let them break it. Let them defund it. It didn't protect us anyway. The system was built on fascism. This will be our chance to rebuild a system based on democracy and equality. It's a gift, actually. A painful and stressful gift. As things break, we have to be ready to swoop into the void to replace them with things we can control, things that work better and things built by the people on the principles of solidarity, equality and sharing. This is our time. We are the heroes that we need.
Jared Yates Sexton is a journalist and author of the book "The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis."
I am feeling sad, frustrated, angry and motivated. The way I work, in times like this, is to throw myself into the work and then work my way out. I don't have the privilege of being immobilized, so since Wednesday morning I've been working on what I can do to help the situation in any way that I possibly can.
Trump and MAGA present a novel problem to our media. To fully understand them would mean wrestling with the effects of capitalism, white supremacy and misogyny. Our media is tuned to telling a very conventional and predictable story about the United States of America, and that story does not allow for true examinations of those things lest the media actually engage in critical self-reflection and ask really hard questions about itself and its role in these great problems. So Trump gets laundered, and the analysis continues to get worse and worse.
I'm not surprised by Trump winning the election and defeating Kamala Harris. I think there was a part of me that wanted to believe he would be defeated against all odds, but I knew there was a very real possibility this would happen. For the past couple of years, I've been observing the United States become more and more right-wing and authoritarian. These results just brought that into full focus for everyone willing to see it.
We are facing an authoritarian regime that will do everything in its power to destroy liberal democracy, turn the U.S. into a kleptocratic entity and burn down our economy and standard of living. My advice is to prepare. Reflect on who you are, what you believe and what your actual principles are. The time is coming when you will be tested. To reiterate: If we as a people are to somehow avoid the absolute worst-case scenario, you are going to be tested — and it will not be easy.
Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of "Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President."
I am feeling sad and shocked, ultimately devastated by this defeat. But I don’t blame the voters who chose Trump. The question is: What mistakes did we make? Thinking about our mistakes makes me angry at Kamala Harris' advisers.
Ultimately, I think Trump's second election was a referendum less on the American people than on the Democratic Party itself. I was surprised by the outcome because I was blinded by the great parts of her campaign, coupled with my own complete disgust with Trump. But the character of the American people — not counting rabid MAGA supporters — is still elusive to me, despite their choosing a convicted felon as president.
Moreover, Harris didn’t directly attack corporate greed enough. Ultimately, to point fingers at others is to evade self-examination about how we got here as a nation.
