The US Presidential Election this year was energetic and spontaneous. There are so many moments that could define it, from the two assassination attempts against former (and future) President Donald Trump and no less than three eventful presidential debates. 

 President Joe Biden made waves when he conceded his bid for re-election in the Summer. It was a damaging and consequential period for the Democratic Party.  

But that’s in the past. 

 The road ahead is clear, and millions of people have the right to be worried, and many have the right to feel betrayed. I’m going to try and temper your expectations. Just a little. One candidate – the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris – was fighting an upwards battle for popularity within her party, and the other candidate – Donald Trump – was battling a legacy of failure and brash decisions culminating in the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, 2021.  

Both candidates were unpopular with masses of the American people, which led to the election being on a knife-edge across the nation. In the end, it played to Trump’s strengths. The Democratic Party had a significantly lower voter turnout than previous elections, chasing a Republican electorate that would never vote for them in a million years, while treating their own base with contempt. And here we are. This election was a slaughter for the Democratic Party. As well as losing the White House, they lost the electoral college, control of the Senate, the popular vote, and several Senate races. I don’t brag often, but I feel like on this occasion it’s earned. I went into US Election night with a long list of predictions, such as which states would be won by which candidate, and how long it would take until we had a clear idea of who the winner would be. Every one of those predictions was right. I was able to make such informed estimates because this is an election I’ve followed since the tail end of the last one. I never stopped following the key figures in US politics in 2021, and I’ve seen dozens and dozens of rallies over the last four years, including every single one by Republican and Democratic vice-presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz. Many people are worried about what comes next and, no, that isn’t just because JD Vance is a heartbeat away from the presidency if Trump corks it. Many people are beginning to come around to the fact that they were lied to during the election cycle, both Democrat and Republican. There are worrying Google search trends in the last few weeks such as what tariffs are, and even why they couldn’t vote for Joe Biden. This uninformed electorate could seriously be hurt by an Oval Office that is now packed with billionaires. So much is now possible. 

Many of the people who were crucial in securing Trump the presidency are paleoconservatives – politicians who vote and act based on their faith. Popular examples of paleoconservatives are the Republican vice president-elect JD Vance, and the speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson. Mike also doesn’t believe in dinosaurs, and that’s not a joke. So, changes could come from the White House that reflect an overwhelmingly Christian faith, such as pro-life legislation – the end of abortion as we know it – and the criminalisation of pornography. There are already elected senators who are looking towards the prospect of banning interracial marriage, some of whom are ironically enough married to people from a different race themselves. A lot of these aren’t claims that Trump campaigned on, but as hardline paleoconservatives they are now absolutely conceivable in the United States. Pledges that are all too familiar to Trump’s supporters like a ‘remain in Mexico’ policy and restrictions of transgender rights also feed back into faith. All this and more to come on the next season of the United States.