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America elects Donald Trump president, spelling change for SA and the world

Source: News 24, 06/11/2024

America elects Donald Trump president, spelling change for SA and the world News24 06 November 2024Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate as Fox News declares him the next President of the United States during an election night event at the West Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, early on 6 November 2024Jim Watson/AFP Donald Trump will be sworn in as America`s 47th president in January, projections now show. With Georgia and North Carolina won for Trump, Fox News first called the election for him.Trump has promised big changes in America, and in its place in the world, with significant implications for South Africa.The United States of America has elected Donald John Trump as its 47th president, reliable projections now show, choosing a candidate who has promised to put America on a different path, with significant implications for South Africa.Fox News was the first to project a win for Trump, after he won the swing states of North Carolina and Georgia, and showed improved performance compared to 2020 in both rural and urban areas. With around half the vote counted, Trump`s support was some two percentage points higher than four years ago.Not long after, CNN called Pennsylvania for Trump, giving him three of seven key states.Shortly after 12:32, CNN and NBC both projected that Trump had won Wisconsin and so the overall race.Barring legal intervention, or the kind of violence outgoing president Joe Biden feared, or a revolt by key officials, members of the Electoral College will cast their votes on 17 December and give Trump the majority necessary to assume office.Those votes will be counted by the Senate on 6 January, in preparation for Trump`s inauguration on 20 January 2025. The 78-year-old Trump`s term in office is due to end in early 2029, though he has joked that he could stay on beyond that two-term constitutional limit. If he is unable to perform his duties, running mate JD Vance will step in as the next in line to the presidency. A close race at firstIn the final days before the election, polls showed Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to be neck-and-neck in the popular vote, with the difference between them easily falling within error margins.In terms of the all-important Electoral College votes, both candidates identified a handful of swing states they believed could get them into office.Those battlegrounds Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin saw a massive mobilisation by both Democrats and Republicans.Elsewhere, states considered safe went to each candidate as expected, with Trump`s lead in Electoral College votes continuing to build.But exit polling showed a negative mood across the country, with voters seeking change from the approach of Biden, which Harris was expected to largely follow.Three-fourths of voters surveyed across the country said the USA was going in a negative direction. Of those voters, 61% went for Trump. Of the voters who called themselves `angry`, 71% backed the Republican.Among voters who said the economy was their top concern, 79% preferred Trump.During the early hours of Wednesday morning, South African time, it became increasingly clear that a race that had seemed too close to call up to election day with every chance that a result could take days to emerge was effectively over. Changes ahead for SATrump`s previous term in office and his campaigning ahead of this election showed him to be a nationalist and isolationist with a deep skepticism of multilateral institutions and a belief that the friend of his enemy is his enemy.Trump has said he would leave fellow NATO countries to fend for themselves if they fail to invest sufficiently in their own militaries, that he would solve the Middle East`s problems in short order and bring peace to Ukraine quickly, though he has not explained how.In 2018, Trump as president directed his government to investigate `land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers` in South Africa, after an AfriForum delegation visited the USA.Some analysts believe a Trump administration will continue to tussle with China and Russia for influence in Africa, with a focus on minerals south of the Sahara and a focus on security in the Sahel and farther north.But his overall policy could be a radical departure from the modern USA`s approach to the continent.`Rather than thinning limited federal resources by spreading funds across all countries (including some that are unsupportive or even hostile to the United States) the next Administration should focus on those countries with which the US can expect a mutually beneficial relationship,` advised Project 2025, a roadmap by a prominent right-wing think-tank development with the involvement of former Trump officials.Some of Trump`s supporters within the US Congress consider South Africa to be hostile to the US, based on its genocide action against Israel and its friendship with Russia.Trump is believed to support ideas that include ending development assistance to poor countries except where such initiatives can show a direct benefit to the US in the short-term.

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