On the verge of success After the 270 delegate votes he needed to become president again, Donald Trump stood before a crowd of his supporters to celebrate an unprecedented achievement: a return to the White House after four years, an insurrection, four criminal trials, 34 felony convictions and two assassinations. attempts. Technically he hadn’t won yet, but given that he had been awarded the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, and predictions showed he would win the prize, he was already taking it for granted, as was the rest of the planet. The votes of the other four decisive states were still to be counted. “We will fix everything in this country. We will help our country heal. We have a country that needs help very much,” said Trump, adding, “This will truly be a golden age for America” ​​at the beginning of his speech, which started at 02.30 at night.

The Republican candidate took the stage alongside his family, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and a handful of close collaborators in front of dozens of American flags. He did it at a convention center near his West Palm Beach home, the mansion-golf-club-hotel of Mar-a-Lago, the scene of some of his greatest triumphs but also his worst moments. It would sound incredible if it wasn’t true. Vance described it as “the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States.”

Approximately 5,000 of Trump’s supporters, collaborators and other believers in what he called “the greatest political movement in human history” were waiting for him. They had clearly been summoned to a MAGA party to witness their leader’s triumphant return and the completion of the revenge that had been brewing since 2020, when Joe Biden ousted Trump from the White House.

“This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country,” he told a crowd full of red hats, including television’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a sudden and ardent Trump fan. We host Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy, the famous anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and descendant of the legendary Democratic dynasty. Trump praised Musk: “A star is born: Elon!” Trump also celebrated his victory in the popular vote and the Republican victory, the first victory of his political career. They took control of the Senate and will certainly win control of the House. That, combined with the fact that the Supreme Court is dominated by a conservative majority, leaves him with a clear path to the White House.

Turns out things are looking better for the Republican nominee than for his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the surprise candidate after Biden declined to run for re-election. First president to do so in nearly half a century – became clear shortly after the first polling stations on the East Coast closed. The first sign of impending victory for Trump came from Florida, where the former president carried a state that used to be a swing state but is no longer so: Republicans won that state by one point in 2016. Up to three in 2020. This time the difference increased to 13 points.

Then came Virginia, where Trump didn’t win but had better results than four years ago. When Iowa turned red despite a poll ringing alarm bells on Saturday and US media predicted the decisive states of North Carolina and Georgia would flip to the Republicans, Trumpism put the champagne bottles on ice while Harris confirmed she would not. He came out to speak to supporters summoned to Howard University in Washington.

Trump had spent the final days of his campaign stoking the specter of voter fraud in a way reminiscent of how he laid the groundwork with verbal attacks against early voting and mail-in voting in 2020 to claim the White House would not be on the campaign trail. it was stolen from him. The Big Lie of four years ago was a lie that was repeatedly proven false in the courts and led to prosecution. The attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. That day, a mob of Trump supporters attacked the seat of American democracy to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. He had addressed a crowd at a rally in Washington and then watched the violence unfold for hours. Clearly, this memory did not demoralize enough the millions of Americans who decided it was a good idea to put this man in charge of the world’s leading power.

It also doesn’t change the fact that Trump is the first former White House tenant to be charged in not just one but four criminal cases. In one of them, porn actress Stormy Daniels was found guilty of 34 felonies by a jury in New York, related to the payment of hush money to cover up an extramarital affair, which she denied. His sentence will be announced on November 26. What his legal troubles will be if his return to the White House is finally approved is one of the many unknowns looming in a country more divided than ever in recent history.

On Tuesday, just before the polls closed, Trump, who at 78 will become the oldest serving president in history, falsely claimed that voter fraud was happening live in Pennsylvania, the mother of all battleground states, and in Detroit (the most populous state). city ​​in Michigan, another key state), and said police were on their way to stop it. In the end, she didn’t need to resort to these lies: As a long day wore on, her victory became clear, and Harris’ supporters gathered at Howard University began to lose hope. Trump’s mood was very different from what it was on election night in 2020, when he emerged at the White House around 2:30 a.m. to say he had won, when in reality there were millions of votes still left to be counted. Three days later it became clear that he had lost a defeat he had not yet accepted.

Everything suggests that he understands what voters’ core concerns are this time around, and that the apocalyptic message he has delivered in his unpredictable campaign speeches is a winning strategy in an increasingly serious race in which he has survived two assassination attempts. a darker and more violent tone. The image he painted was of a country with open borders, overrun by “immigrant crime,” middle-class families crushed by the high cost of living, and a government incapable of managing domestic affairs. The waters are calming on the international stage. His promises to single-handedly solve inflation, the migration crisis, “the largest mass deportation in history, and world peace” also seem to have convinced many voters.

Or perhaps it could prove once again that the United States is still not ready to elect a female president.

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