The crossroads of the midterm vote for Trump

For the foolish servants, even Europeans, of the American president, Trump is the most authoritative leader and for some, even the man of providence, capable of making a balance of powers deemed obsolete more effective. His supporters exalt his abuses, considered necessary to defend American interests. Sooner or later, an assessment will be made of the planetary disaster produced by this presidency. The hardcore Trump supporters, however, daily exalt the new world that the tycoon is delivering to us. A world "tailored to him", which transcends norms and in which those who oppose him are not resisted but destroyed, applying to politics the same methods used to defeat his competitors in business. The consequences of so many abuses will fully emerge especially once Trump is out of the picture.

However, the nefarious effects of the political adventurism that marks the Trump era are already manifesting in the immediate, as is happening with the Gulf War, which has already produced a severe energy crisis, with cascading effects on businesses and families. Only in the month of February, the unemployment rate in the United States reached 4.4, recording a loss of as many as 92,000 jobs (a figure closely linked to the anti-immigration policies pursued by the American president).

There is also another element to consider. Trump, who likes to emphasize that he has done things that no other president has ever done before him, is also the one who started a war - that against Iran - without solid public support. To Americans, he has not explained either what he is doing, why he started the conflict, or how he thinks to end it. The human costs imposed by the wars he has unleashed, especially to please the Israeli ally (always inclined to strike civilian populations through carpet bombing), cannot help but create a situation of social alarm even in countries currently not involved in war theaters. The normalization that Trump aims to achieve in Latin America will also inevitably create political disorder and violence, making authentic democratic life impossible. The abuses exercised in terms of tariffs, used as a tool to condition national sovereignty, will ultimately weigh on American consumers, as evidenced by the recent hostility towards such measures expressed by the very gurus of Wall Street.

We must also consider the Epstein scandal, which will cause enormous damage to the international reputation of the country. The brutal public order policies imposed by Trump, which produce a true crisis of the rule of law, cannot fail to provoke increasing dismay in public opinion. Similar social alarm is produced by the persecutions ordered through executive orders against researchers and professors working in American universities, risking to create an irreparable discredit within the U.S. academic system. No less discredit is produced by the policies against migrants (who are also denied fundamental rights) carried out through outright deportations, leading to deadly repression. Cultural freedoms, particularly regarding free press, are also undergoing a systematic attack by the government. Journalists who do not propagate for the American tycoon are constantly intimidated or mocked. Publishers who do not comply are even threatened economically.

The midterm elections will be the litmus test for Trump and the whole world.

Salvo Andò
constitutional lawyer is president
national
of Lab Dem