"We are not going back" was Vice President Kamala Harris's catchphrase at her rallies. But it seems the U.S. has taken a step back after all. At yesterday's elections, former President Donald Trump indeed defeated Harris, securing a second term and becoming the 47th president of the United States.
Polls showed a close race in key states, but Trump managed to flip Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and eventually reached the 270 electoral votes needed to win (at the time of writing this post votes are still being counted, but, so far, he has secured the electoral college with 292 votes). He also won the popular vote, a feat he hadn't achieved in 2016 and one Republicans have only managed once since 1992.
At 78, Trump will be the oldest person elected to the presidency, and the second (after Grover Cleveland in 1892) to serve two nonconsecutive terms. However, he'll be term-limited by the 22nd Amendment and won't be able to run again in 2028.
Rising costs (Trump pledged to extend the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017), concerns about immigration at the southern border, and instability abroad - from the war in Ukraine to expanding conflict in the Middle East - seem to have driven many voters to back Trump.
While Trump's victory isn't entirely surprising, it's striking how his legal issues don't seem to impact his support. Trump has indeed just marked a historic first: he will become the first US president with a criminal record. Indicted in four separate jurisdictions, he was found guilty of 34 felony counts in May this year, and impeached twice in his first term. He also faces charges for disrupting the electoral process and hoarding classified documents, alongside civil penalties for sexual abuse, defamation, and fraud.
Trump's political journey mirrors that of the late Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. Both wealthy, egocentric real-estate moguls turned media stars, they became known worldwide for their gaffes, controversial statements, and sexist language. Both faced sex scandals and convictions, maintaining a tense relationship with the press, the judiciary, and tax authorities. Like Berlusconi, who labeled his opponents as "communists", Trump casts himself as a defender of the common people against a disconnected elite and the guardian of truth against fake news.
In 2011, interviewed by Italian newspaper La Repubblica before Versace's catwalk show at Milan Fashion Week, Anna Wintour, who at the time was US Vogue editor, stated about Berlusconi: "I'm disgusted and embarrassed: how can Italy tolerate Silvio Berlusconi and his girls? (…) I really can't understand how this can be possible: you can not even talk about democracy here, this is a dictatorship (…) it seems impossible to read the news about your Prime Minister and think that it is all real and that he still hasn't resigned, or that Italians aren't doing anything to force him to resign."
We may now wonder in turn why Americans are voting for Trump, but having lived a similar path with Berlusconi in Italy, we probably have an answer. For many Italians, supporting Berlusconi seemed like a way to share in his success, it was almost a path to becoming as wealthy as he was. Maybe this applies also to Trump's case who has also got a powerful billionaire ally: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter).
Musk played a major role in Trump's campaign in recent weeks, even running a kind of "lottery" in swing states, offering $1 million per day to registered voters who signed a petition from his PAC supporting the First Amendment's free speech protections and the Second Amendment's right to bear arms (when asked about the legality of this lottery, Musk's lawyers clarified that recipients weren't actually chosen randomly as this wasn't a real lottery; instead, they were pre-screened and selected based on their alignment with the cause and potential as spokespeople).
It may seem simplistic to say that wealth and power attract voters to figures like these ones, but this potent combination undeniably has an influence. We often scorn destitute people, migrants fleeing war, poverty, and hardship for a better life, yet we respect and even idolize billionaires, even when they use aggressive language, distort facts, spread hate, create toxic environments and, well, have a criminal record. Money doesn't just make the world go around; it clouds our vision.
Berlusconi's wealth made many Italians overlook his conflicts of interest, self-serving laws, corruption charges, Mafia associations, economic downturns in Italy, and internationally embarrassing gaffes. When he died in 2023, he was almost revered as a saint. Will the same happen with Trump? Time will tell, but for now, many challenges lie ahead.
Things look indeed concerning on several fronts. For what regards immigration, during his campaign Trump has promised to conduct large-scale raids and the biggest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.
What about abortion rights? Well, this was also the first presidential election to take place after the Supreme Court trampled on women's rights to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. While Harris emphasized abortion rights throughout her campaign, federal restrictions could emerge on this issue under Trump's administration.
Trump may also cut funding for gender-affirming care and LGBTQ+ protections, roll back transgender rights, shut down the Department of Education (in September, during a rally in Wisconsin he stated: "We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's youth with all sorts of things that you don't want to have our youth hearing"), and reduce environmental regulations. Under his previous administration, the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement; now, he might even consider closing agencies like the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which tracks rising temperatures.
Talking about closing agencies, will he dismantle gun-safety policies and close the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, created in 2023? And how will Trump's leadership affect the conflicts in Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine? His stance on NATO raises also concerns, especially after suggesting earlier this year that he might allow Russia to act freely against countries not meeting NATO's defense spending targets. Last but not least, will Trump revive his tense relationship with the media, making "fake news" his mantra again?
That's not all, though, there's actually also the question of Elon Musk's role. During the campaign, Trump even floated the idea of bringing Musk into the government. Could Musk's involvement shape U.S. policy on different levels (Musk is obsessed by the fertility crisis and procreation, issues that resonate with right-wing governments in Europe, such as Meloni's in Italy, so will he encourage a Handmaid's Tale situation and replace Gilead's society deeply rooted in religious extremism with an extremist technocracy?) and influence also AI regulation?
And what about fashion? In one sense, designers who largely backed Harris and the Democrats lose the chance to dress the first female president (will the US ever have a woman president?). Those interested may now focus on FLOTUS Melania Trump, who tends to prefer European designers: Melania Trump has inded been favoring Dior for a while now (are Zara times over for her then?), wearing a polka-dot Dior shirtdress to vote in Palm Beach and a gray Dior suit on Election Night (purchased by her stylist Hervé Pierre; odds are high for Dior for Inauguration Day…). Dior is part of LVMH's portfolio and there is actually a connection between LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and the Trumps.
Louis Vuitton is actually one of the first luxury brands that aligned with Trump during his first presidency. Arnault was a guest at Trump's first state dinner and one of the first CEOs to meet with Trump after his 2017 inauguration and Trump supported the production facility opened by Louis Vuitton in 2019 in Texas (Alexandre Arnault, son of Bernard Arnault and Executive Vice President of Product and Communications at Tiffany & Co., was also seen at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally last month).
On another level, there are the issues of corporate tax and of trade: much of U.S. fashion relies on imported goods, and Trump previously threatened increased tariffs on imports, though China was the only country hit last time. The Biden administration maintained some of these tariffs, but new trade partnerships have yet to flourish under this arrangement.
Another factor is sustainability, increasingly significant in fashion. The Biden-Harris administration has supported environmental regulations to reduce pollution from factories, but Trump's approach has been to loosen regulations, prioritizing lower costs and faster production for businesses.
Worker rights and corporate mergers also impact fashion and related industries and at the moment there is a key federal legislation on the horizon, the FABRIC (Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change) Act, a proposal aimed at revitalizing the U.S. garment industry. Currently under review, the FABRIC Act seeks to position the U.S. as a leader in responsible apparel production by introducing workplace protections and incentives for domestic manufacturing.
So, there's certainly much at stake for the U.S. and the world, especially considering Trump's approach. John F. Kelly, retired Marine general and Trump's former White House chief of staff, made striking comments in interviews published in October. He told The New York Times that Trump "falls into the general definition of fascist" and that he "certainly prefers the dictator approach to government".
Kelly, who found the president to be at times inappropriate and showing no understanding of the Constitution, also told The Atlantic that Trump desired for his military personnel to show him the same deference Hitler's Nazi generals showed.
Addressing his supporters in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump vowed he will lead the "golden age of America", yet these remarks underscore concerns about Trump's leadership style as he returns to office.
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