Trump’s Voters

President Donald Trump is not the problem; his voters are. According to U.S. political commentators, everything that Trump is saying and doing has no purpose other than to divide the country and cause tension because this benefits him electorally. In other words, the disturbances and protests against Trump are his strongest electoral ally. Trump’s style seems to line up with the way many Americans are and think, precisely for the same reasons it gives many people chills. The anti-Trumpists work in his favor. This is definitely worrying — very worrying.

All the more so because we Europeans do not vote in the U.S. If Europe had the choice, Trump would have little hope. But Europe does not have a say in the vote, and Trump supporters love the fact that Europe disapproves of their candidate. Europe’s tolerance, permissiveness, plurality, diversity, and the integrated and inclusive nature of its society annoys them. They are motivated to visit us by the desire to experience a seaside resort in the “land of decadence,” but are convinced that this is not an example to follow. The U.S. heartland believes in Trump and desires his victory just as strongly as we are horrified by the possibility.

The race conflict is not over in the United States. Former President Barack Obama’s election was like an optical illusion that had us fooled. It is an unresolved conflict, which, moreover, veils a serious and alarming social conflict. Class division in the U.S. has a strong racial component. And COVID-19 has exposed this. The African American population has paid the biggest price for the impact of the pandemic — the biggest by far. And this will have further-reaching consequences than George Floyd’s death at the hands of the police. This incident has galvanized a lot of people and stirred a lot of consciences, but it is the socio-racial marginalization that has paved the way and caused the streets to explode. Trump wants this. He wants the streets ablaze, shops looted, brawls with the police; he wants disorder so that order can be appreciated; he wants arrests so that he can become the defender of freedom and safety. And his audience buys or is capable of buying this formula. First, fear; then force as an expression of order. This formula suits Trump. How frightening!

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, knows this, which is why, when he criticizes Trump, he does it with a lot of restraint, trying, for example, not to bring the behavior of the police force into the criticism. But on seeing how Trump’s behavior can destabilize the system and damage the country’s economy, some industrial and financial corporations are taking an open anti-Trump stance. This is definitely a messy situation that is not helping the global economy at the moment. But Trump’s voters do not see it this way, nor do they care. Their world ends where the boundary line of their property does; they are the isolationist sort. Their “America First” should read “Only America.”

Trump is not the problem; his voters are. And this is the worrying thing. While COVID-19 has taught us that we have to show solidarity with others’ fate if we want to be shown solidarity ourselves, there are Americans who see this as an opportunity to withdraw into themselves. While COVID-19 has made us feel the weight of equality, there are those who still want segregation, division, confrontation, and exclusion. And if this happens or is possible in a country that leads the global economy, it becomes a big concern.

Trump’s voters have the last word.