How the U.S. presidential results are being seen around the globe

Article paru dans The Conversation

Learning to work with Trump, despite everything

Frédéric Charillon, Université Clermont Auvergne, France
Unless the new president makes substantial changes to the positions he’s already taken, three developments are very likely:

• We are at the dawn of a new wave of anti-Americanism around the world, from which the United States will not be able to recover quickly. The image of the America portrayed in the speeches that Trump has given will not be easy to repair.
• More than ever, U.S. foreign policy will be a series of extreme shifts and oppositions – other political forces or bureaucracies in the U.S. will no doubt oppose certain positions Trump may take. A measure of paralysis is to be feared.
• European allies, whatever they may say, will have to learn to work with Trump. He will seek to be charming, and – over time – could attract some to his anti-interventionist rhetoric. However, a number of countries will be constrained by segments of their populations completely opposed to any display of cordiality with Trump, who for them embodies absolute evil. It will still be necessary to deal with him, but one good aspect is that he probably has no ideology, making him more pragmatic.

The real question, however, is what leeway Trump will have in an America beset by doubt, divisions and political paralysis. Does he even want to reconcile with the world the part of the United States that didn’t flinch when he suggested building a wall on the Mexican border or banning all Muslims from entering U.S. territory? If he doesn’t, the relationship between the United States and the international community could enter a particularly difficult phase.

Supporters of Donald Trump react as a state is called in his favor, as students watch the live results of the U.S. presidential election, at the University of Sydney in Australia. Jason Reed/Reuters