After four years, Donald Trump has been voted out of office as US president – time for an analysis. What has gone well under Trump? Probably his greatest successes were that he did not start a war as US president, that he lowered taxes for companies and individuals and that he led the US nation to an economic upswing before the Corona crisis. His biggest mistake, however, will probably have cost him re-election: the very careless handling of Corona and the lack of will to launch sustainable and scientifically sound concepts against the pandemic. Almost 300,000 Corona deaths by December 2020, which is in relation four times as many victims as in Germany, a devastated economy as well as a record unemployment rate are the result of his inaction in the biggest global crisis of modern times. Nevertheless, he has achieved a personal record result, as he was able to mobilise almost five million more voters for himself than when he was elected president in 2016.
None of this was of any use to him, as his challenger Joe Biden reached an absolute record in US history with over 81 million voters and won by a clear margin of over 7 million voters.
Will everything be better with the new US President Joe Biden?
The answer is yes and no. Certainly, the tone towards Germany and the EU will be more moderate than under Donald Trump, who was often conspicuous for his name-calling or even insults.
Joe Biden’s first act in office will be to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and he has the ambitious goal of making the USA – currently the world’s second-largest climate polluter – climate-neutral by 2050. He also wants to massively raise taxes again, especially for the high earners. It is to be feared, however, that the trade war with China will continue to dominate the headlines.
Biden’s biggest challenge, however, will be to unite the divided country. Unfortunately, both parties set little example here. The hate between the parties is great and, in my view, a great danger for the country. Extreme organisations like “QAnon” or “Proud Boys” cause racism and crime in big cities like New York or Los Angeles has risen massively recently.
Furthermore, Biden must find a solution for health insurance, because the US is practically the only industrialised nation without comprehensive health insurance coverage. Nevertheless, Trump was and is a great opponent of Obamacare. The abolition of Obamacare was his key campaign promise in 2016 that he was unable to keep – even though he wanted to appeal to the Supreme Court in September 2020, shortly before he was voted out of office.
Obamacare is certainly not easy to finance, especially in Corona times, and it is to be feared that even more people will live without health insurance in the USA in the future, but the new US president must find a solution here as well.
Joe Biden faces great challenges, and whether he will be able to master them at his advanced age of 78 remains to be seen. I am sure, however, that Trump will make a comeback and would like to be back in office in four years. By then he will also be 78, but he has a broad voter base that doesn’t mind his age – and he hates to lose. We can be curious!
The author
In recent years, the author Volker Heun has worked on an honorary basis for a better relationship between the German and US governments, especially for German corporations in the USA. The background to this is that he knows the former US President Trump personally for over 20 years. Talks with him have not always been easy, but he has always been committed to a dialogue between all parties. The motivation for his commitment is his sympathy for both nations. He also lived and worked in the USA for several years. Volker Heun regularly gives lectures on the topic, among others at Atlantik-Brücke e.V.