‘America will suffer again’: Independent readers react to Trump’s election win

While many expressed alarm over Trump’s re-election, Kamala Harris’s campaign also faced criticism for its overreliance on identity politics and lack of clear policy direction

Donald Trump has secured his return to the White House (Alex Brandon/AP) (AP)

Trump has completed a shocking political comeback by winning the election four years after leaving the White House, making him the first convicted criminal to hold the US presidency.

The former president won several key battleground states, as well as the majority of the popular vote, picking up 72.5 million votes to Kamala Harris’s 68 million as she fell well short of Biden’s 2020 total of 81 million.

Independent readers were quick to react to Trump’s re-election, when we asked for your views.

Many voiced alarm over what the former president’s return means for democracy, referencing Project 2025, the “dystopian” supposed manifesto for his second term. Concerns also extended to the impact on the UK, with worries surrounding the potential economic fallout from Trump’s policies dominating the conversation.

Meanwhile, Harris’s campaign also came under scrutiny, with readers blaming her defeat on overreliance on identity politics and a lack of clear policy direction.

Among our readers, Trump remained controversial. However, some noted that his direct approach won over voters looking for decisive leadership.

Here’s a closer look at your reactions:

‘Staggering’

It is staggering that a constitution should allow a convicted felon who is still the subject of litigation to stand for political office, let alone that one. The consequences, both national and international, are potentially absolutely horrendous.

JanP

‘Americans have what they voted for’

Americans have what they voted for, same as the UK. They wanted change and not the same old, same old. Will they be happy, or will they rue the result?

Martyn

Remember Hillary Clinton

I do not like Trump, but I was not surprised by his win. Kamala Harris was leading in the polls by about 1.0 to 1.3 per cent, but this was less than the lead Hillary Clinton had in the popular vote in the 2016 election when she lost to Trump. Then we have to take into account Trump’s tendency to attract a higher percentage of the vote than the polls suggest.

PaulB

‘Anti-christ’

The term ‘anti-Christ’ has been bandied around as a description of President-elect Trump. Maybe ‘demonic’ would be a better word, a negative agent of change, with the charisma to sweep common sense away, thus enabling bigotry, discrimination, and misogynistic abuse to become normalised within the societal psyche. Demonise those in society that are ‘outriders’, create a ‘moral panic’, justify actions that are contrary to the law of the land, whilst legislating to legitimise the unthinkable. Someone needs to dust off the Constitution before it gets trampled underfoot!

LouB

Identity politics

Kamala Harris’s campaign relied too much on identity politics and fearmongering of conspiracy theories like Project 2025. And she also did a lot of pandering; not only would she downplay her radical ideas of the past for the rallies, but she would often even change accents depending on who she was talking to. This made her seem disingenuous, and many people were clueless as to who Kamala was and what she really stood for. With Trump, there was no such confusion; while he isn’t the most likeable person or best wordsmith compared to Kamala, he seems at least more honest. And making America great again seems like a more hands-on political quest than bringing back ‘joy’.

DanTebasco

‘Farewell America!’

Farewell America! You have chosen dark before light. You have chosen The American Nightmare before The American Dream. Those of us who live in the part of the world that has experienced fascism will no longer say ‘Look To America’. You are moving backwards, not forward. But you will have to live through the pain before you understand that you have done a bummer. I feel sorry for you.

Arne

‘Grow up’

America... needs to ‘grow up’... until its population acknowledges that anything vaguely social-democratic-ish is not actually ‘communist’, the country will not be able to move on from simply shouting loudly about being ‘great again’. The whole Western world has also been tricked into a ghastly blind alley by its support for “Israel” while hoping that Putin might go away... Trump has also got away with his foul language and insulting diatribes—which in other contexts one might describe as ‘playground abuse’.

theyachtsman

‘This is obviously bad’

This is obviously bad. I mean, even from a parochial UK viewpoint, it’ll be economically disastrous. What was the recent estimate of the consequences of his plans? A 50 per cent reduction in UK growth, wasn’t it? But honestly, that’s trivial. Unimportant. The real disaster is Trump’s climate denialism and determination to restore the American economy by running amok with fossil fuels. That’ll make holding the line elsewhere virtually impossible. For the first time in my life, I’m feeling almost happy that I will likely be dead in thirty years, because gods know what the climate will be like by then. And for added irony, that was barely raised during the campaign, and Harris felt obliged to offer a half-baked version of the same ideas. Because the US electorate may have moments of sense, but telling them to burn less gas would be political suicide.

Spindriver

‘Tragic day’

A very tragic day for the world that an unhinged, vindictive, anti-democratic fascist will rule America as President, controlling the Senate, House, and effectively the Supreme Court. In addition, he is a climate change denier.

marcusw

‘Too close for comfort’

Trump has said one of his priorities is an end to the war in Ukraine — all their brave determination for nothing. And what next? Putin going after the Balkan countries? It’s all too close for comfort to Europe, and yet Europe is dragging its feet. The UK is now between a rock and a hard place. Well done, American electorate!

Troubled

‘Brexiters should feel absolute shame’

Now more than ever we need to unite with Europe. With Putin, Jinping, and now Trump in charge of powerful states, a strong, united Europe is essential... it was clear back in 2016. Brexiters should feel absolute shame.

much0ado

‘America will suffer again’

I am shocked! Trump represents all that is bad about the US. He is a convicted criminal, a narcissist, a liar, and a misogynist, to name a few. America will suffer again from a Trump presidency, and it will be even worse this time if he implements the 2025 Plan. I am very sad.

Algae

‘Disheartening’

The US already has shockingly high rates of infant and maternal mortality for a developed nation, way out of kilter with other G7 countries. If the ‘pro-life’ people really cared, they’d do something about it, but they don’t, so they don’t. Very disheartening that so many Americans, including many women, voted for government control of uteruses.

Ivealreadygotacommentingname

Pocket books

What is clear is that the majority of the US electorate care much more about their ‘pocket book’ than anything else. Given his free reign granted by the corrupt ‘usual suspect’ Justices who sit on SCOTUS, he will push the boundaries of power to the extreme.

StigStag

‘Hysteria’

It was a great mistake for the Democrats to say that Trump is fascism reincarnate. Why? Because they said exactly the same about Barry Goldwater, G. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, even Mitt Romney, for pity’s sake. So it was easy for the Republicans to dismiss it as hysteria.

OldCotemptible

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