On Nov. 5, former President Donald Trump won the keys to the White House yet again. His first term in office was characterized by welfare cuts, tariffs and disastrous policies relating to the “hoax” that most of the world calls climate change. As for the contents of his second term? Anyone’s guess.
As the United States braces for Trump’s return to power, we now face threats of abortion bans, mass deportations and uncertainty about the future of our democracy. But the impact of who the American people elect stretches far beyond U.S. borders, and the shockwaves of Trump’s second term will be felt across the world.
Four years ago, while Democrats across the United States celebrated President Joe Biden winning the presidency, I watched the news back home in the U.K. with my family. As a country, we were in the depths of an eight-month-long COVID-19 lockdown, but when the result of the United States 2020 election finally rolled in, we saw a glimmer of hope. News outlets rejoiced, and Europe breathed a collective sigh of relief. Our most powerful ally would no longer be governed by a man we viewed as unpredictable and extremist.
A year later, I made a major life decision. I wanted to leave home, move an ocean away and go to university in the United States. It was an idea I’d always had, but my parents weren’t very enthusiastic — they didn’t want me living in a country led by Trump, even if I was safely tucked away in New England.
I couldn’t blame them. I also viewed Trump as volatile, and the United States seemed to be descending into chaos. But now that he was gone, the Democrats were in power and moving seemed like a viable option.
This year, I watched election coverage from my Boston apartment. As the map turned red, I couldn’t believe my luck. I was going to be living under a right-wing Republican government, while back home in the U.K., the left-wing Labour Party is leading the government for the first time in 10 years.
As I despaired, so did the rest of Europe. We asked ourselves: Really? Again?
Trump is notoriously unpopular across the pond. Recent polls in 32 European nations found that in 24 countries, over half of respondents said that given the choice, they would’ve voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. In 14 of those countries, at least 75% of the people polled thought she was the better option.
On Nov. 7, European leaders met in Hungary to discuss the state of war in Ukraine, Germany’s political collapse and, most prominently, how the continent will deal with the Trump problem. Western Europe hitched itself to the United State’s wagon a long time ago, a connection solidified by NATO and various trade partnerships throughout the 20th century.
Now, it feels as though the wagon is on fire and missing both of its wheels.
Trump has promised to impose 10 to 20% tariffs on all imports, a strain that Europe, whose biggest trading partner is the United States, is unprepared to take. The continent has not yet recovered from the steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump enforced in 2018 and European economies are struggling more than ever to compete with China and the United States.
As for the conflict in Ukraine, if Trump stays true to his campaign, Ukrainians may be free from war, but at what cost? It’s improbable that a deal made between the former president and Vladimir Putin would be favorable to Ukraine. On the flip side, if the fighting continues, and Europe doesn’t increase its defense budget, Trump may follow through with his threats to back out of NATO, leaving Europe at the mercy of Russia.
The European leaders’ other major qualm is Trump’s approach to climate change. In 2020, Trump formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep the global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, joining only three non-ratifying countries: Iran, Libya and Yemen. Trump said the agreement had resulted in an “unfair economic burden on American workers, businesses and taxpayers.”
One hundred seven days later, the United States rejoined the agreement after Biden signed the instrument to bring the country back in on his first day in office. But, it is expected that once in power, Trump will withdraw from Paris again, a move that the United Nations secretary general has warned could “cripple” the agreement, undoubtedly raising questions from smaller nations about why they should keep putting the work in when the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas polluter is abandoning the deal.
As college students, it’s hard not to despair. We work hard to give ourselves a happy, stable future, and yet the government isn’t willing to offer the same courtesy. But while Trump is likely to cut funding for climate change initiatives and limit clean energy developments, bipartisan organizations like the U.S. Climate Alliance, which Massachusetts is a part of, still aim to stay on track with the Paris Agreement. Here in Boston, the government released a plan in 2019 to accelerate carbon reductions, aiming to reach net zero by 2050.
While climate change looms on our horizon, war is an issue we face today. If Trump’s previous foreign policy activity is anything to go on, we should be ferociously buckling our seatbelts. His negotiation attempts with North Korea were a failure and ended in 2019 after achieving basically nothing, including no promises that North Korea would halt its nuclear weapons development.
His deal with the Taliban forced Biden to withdraw U.S. troops as long as the Taliban pledged not to harbor terrorists but neglected to include any mechanisms that would enforce its promise. Since the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power, women’s rights have been obliterated, with recent restrictions preventing women from speaking in public. This is a prime example of the dangerous impacts of Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy.
Trump has said that he wants peace in the Middle East but that this should be achieved through a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu rather than a peace deal. He wants a swift victory for Israel in the conflict, promising to “finish the job,” and has encouraged Israel to ramp up activity in the region, including carrying out strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Sadly, in this scenario, the election result could not have helped people in Gaza, as Harris also failed to condemn Israel’s actions, instead choosing to protect the status quo and allow the war to continue, a move that lost her votes from Arab American and left-wing voters.
At Northeastern, Harris’ stance on the Israel-Hamas war certainly caused a stir. I reported on the Young Democratic Socialists of America presidential debate watch party in September, and everyone I spoke to was anxious to see what Harris would say about the conflict. Her refusal to condemn Israel made people uncomfortable. The events of Oct. 7, 2023 were hideous — nobody denied that. But the inescapable reality is that today over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed with weapons that are primarily supplied by the United States.
With all this being said, the United States’ fate for the next four years is sealed. The country with the world’s biggest economy and second largest nuclear arsenal has a convicted felon in the driver’s seat, and he’s holding only the concept of a map. The rest of the world is preparing for the crash, and it’s bound to be one they won’t be able to tear their eyes away from.
So, as a country, I implore you: Next time you fill out your ballots, cast aside the man who is an international joke and make sure that someone else — anyone else — ends up in the Oval Office.
Lily Cooper is a third-year biochemistry major. She can be reached at [email protected].
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