Trump won - long live Europe!

A second Donald Trump presidency is unlikely to make America stronger and will not improve the lives of the majority of his voters. Trump’s victory promises the ultra-rich more unrestricted access to power and profits. Europe is emerging as the primary target for the enemies of democracy and human rights, and must defend its identity.

Most of those who dislike the USA appear to be celebrating the election of Donald Trump for a second term. The features of anti-American hate speech were defined by Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, and reproduced by the Kremlin’s propaganda, especially after the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In short: the US is the "world gendarme", wandering around the world in order to establish hegemony, defend its economic interests, and subjugate everyone else.

Sympathy for Trump from those who share similar views suggests that they expect his administration to weaken and reduce American hegemony and presence around the world. As well as that it will somehow benefit the Kremlin and other openly anti-American forces.
Indeed, Trump promises abandoning US commitments to international solidarity through the United Nations, ending support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, and refusiung global commitments such as combating climate change.

Hate voices against the US often criticize the US foreign policy's characteristic priority of protecting democracy and human rights around the world. They define it as a hollow facade, behind which hides the already mentioned aspiration to establish global hegemony. (
In contrast to the requests of the defeated Democrat Kamala Harris, Trump's anti-liberal and anti-democratic rhetoric actually promises to dismantle this "facade".  But behind it, undisguised nationalism and aggressiveness come to light, garnished with an intention to intensify - not abandon - attempts to impose American interests on the world.
 
The two possible explanations for this are not necessarily contradictory. The first is that it is not attempts to impose American hegemony, but the protection of democracy and human rights around the world that is a major irritant to US opponents. And the second, that many of those celebrating Trump's victory do not support his campaign at all, in terms of making "America great again".

Another curious thesis that has been put to the test is that Trump's victory was somehow a victory for "ordinary" working people against the hitherto hostile, governing status quo. Criticisms of the status quo, largely justified, are along two lines:

•   Economic  - because the incomes and living standards of the working and middle classes in society are decreasing; and
•   Democratic - because of the encapsulation of power and the isolation of the masses from access to it.

The rise of Trump is often explained by his perception as an alternative to the existing model, regardless of the fact that he himself is a vivid representative of the hitherto privileged, predominantly hereditary super-rich stratum with unlimited access to profits and power. His first presidential term did not threaten this access in any way, but rather legitimized the ambition to finally dismantle the remaining mechanisms of public control over it.

The door is wide open to a new status quo now, whereby the ultra-rich rule with fewer constraints. It is not by chance that moguls like Elon Musk jumped out from behind Trump in the last election. The richest man in the world directly intervened in the election process by practically buying votes for Trump, instrumentalizing his ownership of the most popular social network platform (X) in the US for political propaganda, and made a bid for direct participation in political power.

Such mixing of political, economic and media power is well known in Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia and other countries with weaker democratic institutions. It has proven nowhere to improve the well-being of working people, with low or middle incomes, improve their access to health care, education or working justice. They can be misled, manipulated and radicalized by fabricated threats such as a "gender ideology" or Soros, nationalism and religious hatred. But their quality of life is not improving, and propaganda cannot replace that, as we remember from pre-1990 left-wing totalitarianism.

All this highlights the role of Europe. Regardless of the progress of anti-liberal, nationalist and anti-democratic politicians in various member states, the European democratic model seems capable of effectively countering them. Critics of democracy and human rights have so far preferred to ignore this fact or attribute it to US influence or intervention. It is no coincidence that the war in Ukraine was regularly portrayed as a "proxy" conflict between the US and Russia by pro-Kremlin voices.

Trump's re-ascension as US president rules out such explanations.  For all its flaws, the EU remains the undisputed champion of democracy, human rights, equality and solidarity politics around the world. With President Trump in Washington, Europe remains the biggest irritant to anti-democratic regimes in the East and West. And their common goal of neutralization, as successfully applied in the US model.

But clarity also turns Europe into a value orientation and obliges it to strengthen and protect its identity and values.