What does Donald Trump’s win mean for America? Newsweek writers’ verdicts

Donald Trump has won the 2024 Presidential Election, delivering a victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The Republican will become the 47th President. Newsweek writers give their verdicts on what the result means for America and the world—plus have your say in the comment form below.
I was reliably informed that this election would determine the future of American democracy. I was told this by a party that perpetrated a coup against their candidate, installing a new one a mere three months ago. The new candidate did not receive a single primary vote. The other guy, the one they claimed was the threat to democracy, was on the receiving end of a torrent of legal cases meant to prevent him from running, and potentially even imprisoning him. Someone even shot him in the head. It’s weird the American people didn’t buy any of it. Democrats have earned their exile. The people have spoken. This is what democracy looks like.
Bethany Mandel is co-author of Stolen Youth
Tonight the nation rejected the first DEI candidate for the presidency, a ridiculous and unqualified woman chosen solely for her race and gender whose only argument was that she was not Donald Trump. That argument failed, and in the end she could not dodge the glaring fact that she, and not Trump, was the unpopular incumbent and that she, and not the once and future president, is responsible for national ills so grave that 72 percent of Americans told exit pollsters that they are either angry or disappointed with the depraved depths to which she and the senile and incompetent Joe Biden reduced our country and world. It was entirely predictable that she would lose and deliver the Senate to Republican control while she was on her way down. For voters who saw through her vacuous billion-dollar campaign and the slimy legacy media’s smoke screen, it is morning in America again. Trump is their retribution.
Paul du Quenoy is President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute
Much of the world is waking up today perplexed by the American electorate’s decision to hand Donald Trump a return pass to the White House. His anti-globalist “American First” agenda will force European leaders to reassess long-standing security arrangements with the U.S. Look for Trump to move quickly to make good on his promise to wind down the war in Ukraine, likely by forcing Zelensky’s hand to make concessions to Putin. Trump will give Netanyahu carte blanche to prosecute the wars against Hamas and Hezbollah with even fewer guardrails. The next four years will mark a radical departure in U.S. foreign policy and trigger significant realignment to the international world order.
Arick Wierson is a six-time Emmy award-winning Television Producer
In 2015, The Onion published a mock op-ed from Donald Trump. The headline: “Admit It: You People Want to See How Far This Goes, Don’t You?” Ever since—the shock of 2016, the comeback after his unprincipled postelection conduct, this year’s assassination attempts—it seems like the American people, if not the hand of the Almighty, have ensured the answer continues to be ‘yes.’ The Democrats have proved themselves unable to adjust to the predominant political dynamic today—a ongoing realignment along educational lines. Their inability to drop the lingo of the college campus and take working-class voters’ concerns seriously was his gain, and former—and future—President Donald Trump will remain the main character in our collective political dramas throughout his second term in office.
Patrick T. Brown is a Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center
The first time Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, the world woke up the next morning in a collective state of shock. Nobody expected it. Eight years later, with Trump again claiming the White House, the world is far more prepared. Foreign diplomats, particularly in Europe and Asia, have spent well over a year trying to rekindle relationships with Trump’s circle to better understand what the foreign policy goals will be during a second Trump presidency and to reiterate a desire to strengthen relations with the United States. Ultimately, though, all of this will come down Trump’s own priorities. At the top of the list is ending the war in Ukraine, which Trump clearly believes the Ukrainians can’t win and one that has sucked up about $175 billion in U.S. taxpayer money over nearly three years. Any chance of a settlement will entail some very tough conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and even tougher ones with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who remains a pariah in the West. Hard compromises will be required from each and maximalism will need to be left at the door. Whether Trump succeeds or fails—and just as importantly, how he succeeds or fails—will in part determine how impactful he will turn out to be on the international stage.
Daniel R. DePetris is a Fellow at Defense Priorities
The U.S. election result has a big impact at home and around the world. Domestically, it sets the tone for things like the economy, health care, climate action, and social issues. The direction the new leadership takes will affect people’s daily lives, from job opportunities to environmental policies. Globally, America’s approach to foreign policy and international challenges influences everything from trade deals to global security and climate agreements. Other countries will pay remarkably close attention, adjusting to new alliances or tensions. Overall, the election outcome shapes how the U.S. interacts with the world and how it manages its own big issues.
Aron Solomon is a legal analyst
Donald Trump has been elected president again because the future of American democracy was not on the ballot in 2024. What was on the ballot was the record of a failed administration led by President Joe Biden and Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. As it turned out, a majority of Americans didn’t buy the smear that Trump was an authoritarian or a Nazi or that the only thing mattered in determining our future as a nation was a Capitol riot that was falsely inflated into an “insurrection.” What they cared about was Biden/Harris’ open borders, inflationary economics and a policy of defeat and chaos abroad, all of which made Trump’s first term look like a golden age by comparison. And if they were worried about democracy, it was the Democrats’ lawfare against Trump and free speech that concerned them. More than that, the election demonstrated that the realignment of American politics in which the GOP became the party of the working class and the Democrats the standard-bearers of the credentialed elites, was a formula for a decisive Trump victory.
Jonathan Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.org
The sun rose today, but shed no light. Trump is back. His bootlickers will control the Senate. Likely the House too. As W.B. Yeats might see this Second Coming, the rough beast’s hour has come round. Ukraine is defeated. NATO endangered. Foreign policy by Putin. Trump escapes justice. Netanyahu too. Capitol rioters will be freed. Jack Smith fired. FBI squelched. Justice and the IRS aimed at enemies. Judge Aileen Cannon promoted. Cannon clones appointed. Clean energy dead. Terrifying tariffs. There’s more to come. We have placed an aging, arbitrary, uninformed, kleptocratic, lawless narcissist in the world’s most powerful position. God knows what’s next.
Thomas Moukawsher is a former Connecticut Superior Court judge and legal writer
The clear result delivers one short-term blessing: avoiding the dirty scheming and terrible violence that nearly destroyed American democracy in 2020. Longer term, it poses four questions. Republicans: do you have the principled conviction to restrain the president’s worst impulses and refuse his illegal actions? Democrats: do you have the courage and discipline to make real changes in the face of a failure? American institutions: will you zealously defend the guardrails of the republic against what promises—literally—to be unprecedented assault? US allies: can you provide world leadership against tyranny that the U.S. now seems likely to abdicate, given Trump’s affinity for autocrats?
Matt Robison is a podcast host and former congressional staffer
History was made in America last night. Not only did former President Donald Trump complete the greatest political comeback in the nation’s history, he did it in an unprecedented fashion. After all the votes are counted, it is very likely that Trump will have won the largest share of the nonwhite vote of any Republican since at least 1976 (and possibly since 1960). He won a historic amount of Black men, Hispanic men, the Jewish community, union workers, Arab Americans, and the working class in general. This new coalition could be transformative in American politics. The old Republican Party died last night.
Darvio Morrow is CEO of the FCB Radio Network
The anti-incumbent wave that has swept the world post-COVID came to America and delivered a large and decisive victory for Donald Trump. President Trump will now return to the Oval Office instead of going to jail. And he will do so with no guardrails and unchecked power. He openly campaigned, and won, on a promise of retaliation for his political enemies and to use the full force of the government to advance his personal agenda. No voter can claim to be surprised by whatever comes next. Where this leaves us as a country is unclear. But what is clear is the people voted in overwhelming fashion in his favor and for his agenda. And Democrats can’t blame Russia or Jim Comey. Buckle up, because we’re headed to truly unprecedented territory.
Doug Gordon is a Democratic strategist and CEO of UpShift Strategies
“Peace” is generally an appealing proposition to American voters, and that’s what Donald Trump shrewdly promised in this election. He was aided as usual by the total enervation of the Democrats, whose reflexive chirping of hysterical abstractions—”fascism,” “dictator,” “insurrection,” et al.—clearly has depreciating purchase with the wider electorate. The “peace” Trump nominally promises might be entirely devoid of policy substance; he spent the final day of the campaign flanked by an entourage consisting of uber-interventionists like Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton, and Marco Rubio. But when voters are mainly being urged to feign outrage over “democracy” and dumb jokes, it’s no surprise that policy substance becomes rather immaterial.
Michael Tracey is an independent reporter
This was an election driven by a desire for change, yet the Democrats failed to convince the majority of Americans that a President Harris would represent a substantial departure from President Biden. Countless words will be written in an effort to analyze the events of Election Day 2024, but certain truths are undeniable. We are a divided nation, living within isolated information bubbles that amplify negativity. Now more than ever, it’s essential for each of us to step outside our bubbles. This doesn’t mean abandoning our core beliefs, but rather engaging with diverse perspectives in a meaningful way. Seek out viewpoints that may be unfamiliar or even challenging, while remaining grounded in your values and focusing on the pursuit of facts to drive decision-making.
Udi Ofer is the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor and Lecturer in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University
Update 11/06/2024 6:10 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional comments.