Joe Biden's victory was clearer than it looked, but what will Donald Trump do next? – Ian Swanson

After days of counting when the result of the election appeared on a knife-edge, the Democrats’ candidate for the White House finally emerged as the next US president on Saturday when Pennsylvania, the state where he was born, put him over the 270 electoral-college-vote threshold,

When people were interviewed in the street for their reaction, the most frequent answer was “relief”. Yet more than 70 million Americans had still voted for Donald Trump, despite his record of racism, misogyny and lying, his irresponsible handling of the Covid crisis, encouragement of white supremacists and more.

Last time, Trump's victory was sometimes explained as an aberration because Hillary Clinton was the wrong choice as the Democrats’ candidate or people thought Trump would change once in office.

Disturbing

But this time there were no excuses. Everyone who voted to give Trump another four years knew what they were voting for.

And it is disturbing that, in the West’s largest democracy, so many are willing to endorse such a man.

But Biden's success in the election should not be minimised. The result is not nearly as close as it might appear – indeed the unfolding drama went almost exactly as predicted: Trump appeared to have an early lead because most states counted the on-the-day votes first, but as the mail-in ballots, which were always expected to be more pro-Democrat, were counted the picture changed and, in the end, the victory was clear.

Biden received more votes than any presidential candidate in history, winning the popular vote by at least four million votes; by the time all the results are in he could end up with 306 electoral votes – two more than Trump in 2016; and he managed the rare achievement of preventing a sitting president from winning a second term.

‘A return to civilisation’

No-one knows quite how Trump will behave over the next two months while he remains in office. Of all the insults he throws around, the one filled with the most.contempt is “loser" – and he'll do everything he can to avoid accepting that label himself.

His baseless claims of large-scale voter fraud look unlikely to make much progress in the courts, but they fuel the anger of his supporters, and fears of violence and civil unrest have not gone away.

Biden has promised to be a president for all Americans, to bring the country together and seek to heal divisions. It is a welcome change of tone from the top but he has his work cut out.

He will try to reverse some of the worst of Trump’s policies, but will face major hurdles unless the Democrats can win control of the Senate. However, his reputation as a conciliator and long experience of co-operating with political opponents will help.

Meanwhile, some think Trump could seek to maintain his influence by setting up his own TV company. And already there is speculation he could run again for president in 2024 or put up a member of his family as a surrogate.

One Biden supporter hailed the Democrat’s victory as “a return to civilisation”. Let us hope it is not short-lived.

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