A Trinity history professor has said that the US has never before “been so close to authoritarianism” following the election of Donald Trump earlier this week.
Writing in the Irish Times, professor of American history Dr Daniel Geary forecasted that Tuesday’s election, which saw former president Donald Trump defeat incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, “will go down as one of the most consequential in American history”.
“A man who has promised to be a dictator on his first day in office and whom his former chief of staff has said fits the ‘general definition of a fascist’ has been returned to the presidency.”
Geary further noted that it is probable that the various federal charges brought against Trump for his actions after losing the 2016 election will be dropped once he returns to office, stating that “a man who has spent his whole life escaping the consequences of his actions will likely never face justice”.
He described Project 2025, a political platform curated by many of Trump’s allies and former aides, as a blueprint that “calls for a radical restricting of the federal government that includes gutting abortion access, mass deportations, using federal law enforcement to crack down against peaceful protesters and journalists, severely limiting voting access, and censoring free speech in education and the media”.
He focused on the plight of migrants coming to the US, transgender citizens “who were viciously targeted in Trump’s campaign ads”, people of colour, liberal academics and journalists, amongst others.
He argued a link between Trump’s victory and the global rise of the far-right, which he sees as “a small but growing threat” in Ireland, due to isolationist foreign policy and a uniquely erratic personality.
Geary also levelled criticism on the Democratic Party, whose “shattering defeat” he expects “will begin a process of soul-searching”.
“Joe Biden had one job to do – to keep Trump out of office – but he sought a second term when he was no longer fit to do so. As a result, his party never had the open primary that might have produced a better candidate than Harris, or a Harris better prepared to succeed.”
“The Democrats’ centrist strategies have suited party elites and its big donors, but they have been sold to the party’s base as the only way to defeat the right. After losing to Trump once again, that argument is no longer credible.”
“Trump and his agenda could lose popularity quickly”, Geary concluded, predicting that an “overhauled Democratic Party would be in [a] good position” in a few years’ time. However, he questioned if the next US Presidential election “will be free and fair”.
Trump, who was first elected president in 2016, will return to the White House in January to serve a second four-year term, just the second in history to serve two terms non-consecutively.
The reaction among students in Ireland has been overwhelmingly negative, with fears of what a second Trump term will mean for abortion access in the US as well as for people of colour.
