US voters are not mad

The world is in a daze; bemused at how Donald Trump stormed to such a commanding victory in the US presidential election.

What lies behind the extraordinary rehabilitation of the most unapologetically sleazy politician ever? Or at the very least, since Jacob Zuma.

The consensus is that American voters must be mad. The marginalised folk who turned out for Trump in droves, in preference to Kamal Harris, were not prejudiced racists and misogynists, as one commentator on CNN dared to point out to the outrage of his fellow panellists.

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They’re ordinary, good, hard-working people who just want to live and let live. They’re the much-spoken-about “silent majority”.

This US election was about this silent majority finding its voice. In voting for Trump, they have sent a signal that has shaken the US’ political and cultural firmament, to cause reverberations that will be felt worldwide for long.

The chasm between the two parties made for the nastiest US election ever.

But, at the end of the day, celebrity endorsements were not enough to deliver to Harris the victory that many thought would be hers. It was an extraordinary triumph for Trump.

Not only did he win the electoral college and popular vote, but the Republicans wrested control of the Senate and are set to hold onto their majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump also turned on its head the Democrat’s assumption that they own the minority vote. While blacks, Latinos and Asians still predominantly voted for Harris, they did so in diminishing numbers.

The potential dangers of a Trump administration are considerable. Raised tariffs are likely to worsen the US economy.

His insularity threatens Nato and the US will, again, withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

A post-World War II international order that is already shaky will have as president of the US a man who takes pride in being amorally transactional in his foreign policy approach.

The big loser will the Ukraine, where the three-year war has recently swung in favour of the Russian invader.

Trump has promised to end the war within 24 hours of stepping into the White House. Ukraine will be bullied into a peace agreement that cedes large chunks of territory to the aggressor.

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The obvious big winner will be Israel. Unlike the carrot-and-stick approach that Joe Biden was nudged towards, Trump has been unambiguous about US support.

He, at least initially, will give Israel the political space in which it could hope to finish the job in Gaza and Lebanon.

The keyword, however, is initially. Since everything emanating from Trump is distorted through his enormous ego, Israel will be aware this support is going to be conditional.

The Abraham Accords, which Trump brokered in 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and later extended to Sudan and Morocco, were the great foreign policy achievements of his first presidential term.

Deserving, by the way, of a Nobel Peace Prize. Should Israel’s actions endanger the progress that Trump will now, in his second term, hope to make with that anti-Iran alliance, they may find that his commitment, like his attention span, can be very short.

Choosing Trump for a second time, after everything that Americans know about him from the first time is one of those victories of hope over experience that humans irrationally succumb to.

It’s like tossing your rack full of dud Scrabble tiles back into the bag in the firm belief that you will draw a better combination.

Of course, you might then fluke a triple-word score. Or you might, as likely, draw a Polish surname.