Trump’s victory is “the end of the American world”

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The largest daily newspaper in France, Le Mondepublished a scathing editorial on Wednesday declaring the “end of the American world” after Donald Trump won the presidential election on Tuesday.

“This time they made a conscious decision. In 2016, when he was first given the White House, American voters were unsure of what Donald Trump’s presidency would look like and were taking a leap into the unknown,” the editorial began, adding:

The situation is different in 2024: Not only do Republican voters know their candidate inside out, down to his least glorious behavior, he is even more radical than he was eight years ago. Trump’s base knows where this president will take them, and they want more.

This is a reality that needs to be looked at with eyes wide open. The path along which Trumpstrengthened for his second term by his party’s success in the Senate, will accept that his country is fundamentally different from the one that the United States has established since the end of World War II. This marks the end of the American era, the era of an open superpower committed to peace and seeking to establish itself as a democratic model. This is the famous “shining city on a hill” praised by the President Ronald Reagan. Over the past two decades, this model has been questioned. Now Trump’s return puts the nail in his coffin.

The editorial went on to criticize Trump’s worldview as overly self-serving: “A world in which transactional diplomacy replaces values-based alliances.” Turning its attention to Europe, the newspaper warned that Trump was likely to appease Russia. Vladimir Putin could “split” Europe:

If, as he threatened during the campaign, Trump ends military aid to Ukraine and begins peace talks with Vladimir Putin in favor of the invader, the consequences of such an outcome will go far beyond the fate of Ukraine alone. They will affect the security of the continent as a whole.

There is a real risk that Europe will be divided or even fractured by this prospect. This threat is existential for the European Union, and its leaders must recognize this and be prepared to confront it without waiting for Trump to take office—they are long overdue.

The editorial ended ominously, arguing that the world would “suffer” as a result of the election: “Trump voters elected him with full knowledge, as did the business and technology leaders who rallied around him, following in Trump’s footsteps.” Elon Musk, the iconoclast CEO became an eminence grise. The rest of the world will suffer.”

Read full editorial Here.

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