On Tuesday night, Donald Trump was named as the 45th President of the United States of America. Soon he will ride atop a wave of xenophobia and misogyny into the oval office.
Trump suffered an unprecedented level of abandonment by the Republican party in the run up to the 8th of December, but as anybody is elected the new US president, it is traditional for world leaders to offer their congratulations. This time around, it took a while.
On Wednesday, Mexican president Peña Nieto confirmed around midday that he had congratulated Donald Trump, and took to Twitter to congratulate the US on its “electoral process”, a particularly indirect congratulations, given the hostile meeting he and Mr. Trump had in August. The announcement came shortly after the peso had regained stability, after crashing to a 20 year low upon news of a Trump victory.
Felicito a EUA por su proceso electoral y le reitero a @realDonaldTrump la disposición de trabajar juntos en favor de la relación bilateral.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) November 9, 2016
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had pointed words for the President elect, and said she would only offer “close cooperation” dependent on his commitment to equal rights. The Chancellor is a key figurehead for immigration in Germany, and said her relationship with Trump would only succeed if he upheld “the dignity of man, independent of origin”.
G’erard Araud, the French Ambassador to the US, took to twitter to make a bleak comparison: “After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible. A world is collapsing before our eyes. Dizziness.”
On the other end of the spectrum in France, Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National party, didn’t hold back on congratulating Donald Trump on his victory. She tweeted: “Congratulations to the new President of the US, Donald Trump, and the American people – free!” Many publications and pundits now claim that a Trump win does in fact signal the strong possibility of Marie Pen winning in France’s 2017 presidential election.
Nigel Farage, ever deplorable, said he couldn’t be happier’ about the Trump win in an interview with Talk Radio in Spain today, where he also called Obama a loathsome creature. When asked his thoughts on Trump meeting Theresa May, he said “I’m now going to become a diplomat. Come and schmooze Theresa – don’t touch her, for goodness sake.”
Yesterday it was also reported that Trump has already invited Irish Premier Enda Kenny to the White House for St Patrick’s Day, a tradition which goes back to the 19th century.
On Wednesday morning Kenny told the Irish parliament that the “racist and dangerous” remarks made by Mr Trump during the election campaign were made in the “heat of battle”.
The foreign affairs ministry of China, a country which has been the subject of many of Trump’s tirades over the past year, told Sky News that its country’s trade relationship with the US was what made relations “stable”. It is unclear how talks between the US and China will proceed from this date forward.
Japan has made a surprising forward step, straight into the arms of a Trump candidacy, as It emerged that Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, will meet with Mr Trump next week.
Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary, said that their conversation “marks a very good start for building trust”. The meeting between the chief cabinet secretary and Trump are being arranged for November 17 in New York.
Trump’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement was a cornerstone of his campaign. The deal includes Japan, and is yet to be ratified, and Trump has demanded that Japan pay more for American troops or risk having them withdrawn. Nonetheless, Japanese officials at this time have said that Trump – who will now meet the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next Thursday in New York – confirmed the importance of the Japan-US alliance and the US’s commitment to cooperation.
Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May released a statement which congratulated Trump “…on being elected the next President of the United States, following a hard-fought campaign”, pointing out the “special relationship” between the UK and US, and that they will remain “ close partners on trade, security and defence.” Despite this, many publication today are reporting that the President elect had not called Mrs May until this afternoon, when he reportedly said he was looking forward to working with her, and reciprocated her comments on the ‘special relationship’.
I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on being elected the next President of the United States. Full statement: https://t.co/7W2feuodUE
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 9, 2016
Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that the Trump win is an “unmistakable rejection of establishment”. Indeed, the US result is a fine piece of evidence for the protest vote, and the lengths that an angry voter will go to, in order to change things.
Today, Trump met with Obama at the Oval Office, an event which saw a press gang stalked outside the meeting room for almost an hour and a half, as the two supposedly discussed a lot of ‘different situations, some wonderful and some difficult’ according to Trump. The President and President elect were both stoic in their approach to the press that met them outside the meeting room, and platitudes were aplenty.
As government officials take various positions around the new leader of the free world, today has seen thousands take to the streets to protest the new President elect, holding signs with messages saying ‘Not my president’ and ‘Love trumps hate’. In Oakland, California, 6,000 protesters joined together and smashed the windows of storefronts in the area and in Chicago, police set up blockades to stop 1,800 protesters from gathering together outside the Trump International Hotel.
