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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

“Under His Eye”

by New Worker correspondent

Donald Trump has won the American presidential race, defeating Kamala Harris in a stunning political comeback with unpredictable consequences for the world. It came on the back of one of the most vicious campaigns in US history and an unprecedented criminal conviction. Trump is the only person to be elected as a convicted felon. He will face sentencing in a New York court for fraud on 26th November. Trump is also on course to break another record as the oldest-ever sitting president during his four-year term. Now 78, he will surpass Joe Biden who is set to step down in January at the age of 82.

“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before,” Trump told a victory party in Florida. That’s certainly true.

His threat of mass deportations of illegal immigrants has stirred deep concern throughout Latin America. His past threats to withdraw from NATO and his ongoing and unrestrained isolationist and nationalist “America First” stance is also deeply unsettling for British and Franco-German imperialism.

Trump says he’s going to stop the war in Gaza, and he has also repeatedly suggested he would end the conflict in Ukraine by pressuring Kiev to make territorial concessions to Russia. That remains to be seen.

American communists have no illusions. The Freedom Road Socialist Organisation said: “The racist, reactionary fool Donald Trump is returning to the White House, and Republicans will dominate Congress. The polarisation of American political life is sharpening and deepening. Revolutionaries and progressives have some heavy lifting ahead of us.

“There is going to be plenty of time to analyse what happened in the election, but on the morning after, some things are clear. The leadership and wealthy backers of the Democratic Party have only themselves to blame for the outcome. The Harris/Waltz campaign was tone-deaf to the needs and aspirations of working people. In fact, the two words that they seemed unable to work into any of their speeches were ‘working class’. Instead, they offered a sad mixture of genocide in Palestine, combined with an appeal to college-educated, ‘never Trump’ Republicans. And they failed.”

Workers World said: “The Democrats had absolutely no programme to address very real concerns – a top concern of many voters polled – about a stagnant economy and a cost of living that has gone through the roof. There has been no let-up in the US/Israeli genocide being committed against the Palestinian people under a Democratic administration. Why vote for four more years of this? Still, it is painful to ponder that someone as despicable as Trump was able to fill the void, seemingly with ease.”

And the CPUSA says: “Trump and the MAGA faction of the Republican Party are the vehicle for the country’s most right-wing capitalists. Collectively, anti-worker corporations, predatory hedge funds, and finance capital spent hundreds of millions to elect him and a GOP [Republican] Senate. The names are familiar ones: Susquehanna Group, Koch Industries, Blackstone, Walmart, TD Ameritrade, Wynn Resorts, Home Depot, Energy Transfer Partners, Sequoia Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and more.

“They put their guy back in the White House, and their paid politicians will be running Congress. Don’t think they won’t take full advantage of the opportunities that brings.

“The country is entering a period of intensified class struggle. And worse, unlike when he won in 2016, Trump won’t be winging it this time. He will enter the White House in January with a fully worked out billionaires’ agenda – Project 2025 – which targets the working class and unions, people of colour, immigrants, women, LGBT people, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, climate change legislation, and more. Expect major tax cuts for the rich and public service cuts for the rest of us.”