Amid the background political hubbub, historical events can sometimes emerge and render one almost speechless. Taken together, the reactions in France to Donald Trump's election appear to be both poor and conventional.

The far right suppressed its joy despite its sympathies for him, aware that there was some risk in lauding such a contentious figure, at a time when the affirmation "America first" risks seriously complicating their defense of the French tricolor cockade. The left showed its divisions, with La France Insoumise blaming the Democratic party's defeat on a lack of radicalism, unlike the social democrats who preferred, like Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, to rail against the degradation of public debate, by "fake news, violence, insults, the permanent questioning of the rule of law." The right, which stayed virtually silent on the event, stepped up its offensive on security policy, with Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau serving as a vanguard in the fight against drug trafficking, which they have elevated to the status of a national cause.

Paradoxically, the loudest voice came from within the ranks of a supposedly moderate camp: the center. In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, on Sunday, November 10, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, from the centrist MoDem party, denounced "decades of the elites' blindness to the upheavals in the world, their denial of the legitimate exasperation of the middle classes, tired of feeling discredited and dispossessed." This is the crux of the problem, but how can it be addressed?

Trump's election is an earthquake. The man was everything that could have disqualified him: delusional, xenophobic, a liar, on trial, a threat to democracy. Four years after initiating his supporters' march on Capitol Hill, Washington, on January 6, 2021, the billionaire won the popular vote, took control of the Senate in addition to the Supreme Court, is on track to win a majority in the House of Representatives, and controls everything in the Republican Party. From an "accident of history," he has birthed Trumpism, a form of conservatism that combines economic liberalism and isolationism, a type of populism combining a well-understood defense of billionaires' interests, a radical desire to kick out incumbent elites, particularly targeting intellectual elites, and a virile style of machismo that praises strength in a world increasingly dominated by it.

You have 60.82% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.