The people of the United States of America, on 6 November 2024, created a new electoral history by electing Donald Trump once again as the 47th President of the US. This is only the second time in the history of the US that the President has been elected again for the next term after a gap of four years. During the last four years, Trump was made to go through a long and tough legal and constitutional battle by his adversaries; and a number of attempts were made to finish him physically during this period. He was twice attacked during his hard election campaign this time. He, however, survived all the attempts, struggled despite his advanced age, made it sure to successfully fight the elections again and ultimately rose like a phoenix from the ashes. He will be formally taking over the reins of the US in mid-January 2025 for the next four years.
This is a remarkable and a landslide victory for the Republican Party this time as its presidential candidate Donald Trump already got 295 electors in his favour (270 needed to become the President). They didn’t win the presidential election only but also achieved an overwhelming victory at the hustings. The Republican Party got the maximum popular votes at the national level (51% by now), it won a majority in the Senate, it also got a better control in the House of Representatives and its candidates won as Governors in 27 states. Their Vice-Presidential candidate J.D Vance also won comfortably. The Democratic Party Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris bagged votes of 226 electors only with an approx of 47% of the popular votes in her favour.
She conceded defeat in a concession speech in a programme at Washington DC after the conclusive results were declared and also congratulated Donald Trump on his thumping victory. Joe Biden, the US President, also congratulated Donald Trump over his victory and invited him to visit the White House. In his call with Trump, Biden expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together.
The results in the US have clearly shown that the people in the country desired to move from the wokeism, self-righteousness and war hysteria. The Democratic Party administration in the US was recognised for its double standards on all major issues concerning the geo-political scenario and also at the home front. The irony is that the media in the US never exhibited a balance between the Republican Party candidate Donald Trump and the Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris while reporting. The media in their surveys, one after the other, always showed Kamala Harris in the lead against her rival. It was only in the last phase of the campaign that the media started saying that the battle was turning into a neck to neck fight.
Kamala Harris who was elected the Vice President last time is an old immigrant in the US. She always tried to hide her Indian background in public life for the reasons better known to her. She hardly identified herself with the cause of India during her Vice Presidentship or earlier. In contrast, Donald Trump declared openly in public that ‘he was a fan of India’. He during his campaign raised the issue of the human rights violations of the Hindu, Christian and Buddhist minorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world. He even vowed to protect their religious and other rights without any sort of reservations.
The deep state in the US comprising past and present US Presidents belonging to the Democratic Party, influential caucuses in the big institutions based in Washington, New York, California, Massachusetts and Illinois and their comrades-in-arms in the US media didn’t leave any stone unturned to discredit the Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump. They all in unison, under a design, organised and managed campaigns of Kamala Harris to get elected knowing very well that the situation on the ground was not in favour of the Democratic Party. People made up their minds very early about their choice this time but the media made every attempt to block this sentiment from spreading. However, the voting pattern clearly suggests that there was a sure wave in favour of the Republican Party candidate which was maneuvered to be put under constant eclipse by all the vested interests.
Donald Trump managed to get a huge support not only from the traditional Red states, primarily the Central American states, but also from a number of Swing states. The president-elect has already won five battleground states, and is leading in the two states (Nevada & Arizona) still counting votes comprising 17 electors. Seven states were considered battlegrounds this year -Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Kamala Harris has been mainly successful in the north-eastern, eastern and western coast states which are considered traditional blue states. However, her party the Democratic Party miserably failed to make any significant impact in other non-traditional areas.
The world leaders sent messages of congratulations to the newly elected President of the US immediately after the declaration of his victory. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi also congratulated Donald Trump on his decisive victory. On social media, Modi shared his happiness and wrote, “Had a great conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump, congratulating him on his spectacular victory. Looking forward to working closely together once again to further strengthen India-US relations across technology, defence, energy, space, and several other sectors”. In his conversation with Trump, he signalled a renewed commitment to strengthening the strategic partnership between India and the United States.
During the call, President Trump expressed admiration for PM Modi and India. He called India a ‘magnificent country’ and PM Modi as a ‘magnificent man’. Trump also emphasized his personal rapport with PM Modi, saying, “the whole world loves PM Modi” and also talked about the enduring relations between the two nations. He made it known that PM Modi was among the first world leaders to reach him and congratulate him on his victory. The two leaders must be looking forward to sharing their common and shared vision about stability and peace worldwide besides the growing Indo-US relationship and a friendship between the two world leaders. It surely indicates that this cooperation is set to deepen in the near future.
The victory of Donald Trump has created a positive hope in context of the Russia-Ukraine war scenario as also in regard to the Middle-East situation. He is on record emphasizing the need for stopping the war and reinventing the US’s approach towards these scenarios worldwide. He was the one who visited Saudi Arabia in his earlier stint and brought the Palestinians closer to the negotiating table. It is expected that in regard to the Ukraine issue, the US will reshape its policy and might also stop sending arms to Ukraine. The Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, in view of the emerging scenario, has also appreciated President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength approach in global affairs’. He wrote, “This is exactly the principle that can bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together”.
The global stock markets have reacted positively to the developments in the US. The Indian stock markets have also seen an upsurge immediately after the results. Generally speaking, the Indians see new opportunities keeping in view the bonhomie between President-elect Trump and PM Modi. The election campaign of Trump in the US also focussed on the issue of illegal immigration of people in the US like in India. The US has been acutely facing this issue for the last several years on its southern borders and Trump has promised that he would address this issue during his term in office.
It is good to see the official reaction of the Congress in India which has sent a congratulatory message to Donald Trump and expected the strategic partnership between India and US to grow in future. However, there are certain important political and other sectors that are in deep mourning due to the US election results. They strongly believed Kamala Harris to win in order to pursue their line of action to create disorder, mayhem, anarchy, change of governments and uncertainty wherever they could do so. Unfortunately, their eco-systems in India and abroad are reeling in deep distress due to these results. Some of them have started giving their negative reactions accordingly, not keeping in view even the basic principles of public protocol. Unfortunately, they include some Congressmen in India too. Their expectations have been dashed to the ground since their ‘bosses in the US’ would lack any official patronage for the next four years at least.
Donald Trump, the President elect, would be expected to visit India in 2025 in connection with the Quad leaders Summit in India. It will be an excellent opportunity for India to take the relations between the two strategic partners, the US and India, to the next level. Besides it, all the four Quad members, Australia, Japan, India and the US, in the changed situation would be exchanging ideas to advance the shared priorities and deliver benefits for partners across the Indo-Pacific region. The newly created opportunities need new initiatives to be taken to benefit global peace, stability and new & just world order.
(The author is a senior BJP and KP leader, human rights defender, author and columnist and can be reached at [email protected])
