Lara Marlowe: The world has just become a more dangerous place

Not since the atrocities of 9/11 had I sat speechless in front of the television, seized by mind-numbing, sleep-defying shock.

The perpetrators of 9/11 were Muslim extremists bent on destroying the United States.

But the artisans of Donald Trump’s election victory were my fellow US citizens, motivated by the illusion that a thuggish, ignorant, racist, vulgar, Islamophobic, woman-groping, tax-evading demagogue billionaire could “make America great again”.

George W Bush's two terms in office were dark years, during which the US institutionalised state-sponsored kidnapping and torture and precipitated the destruction of the Arab Middle East by invading Iraq.

Those of us who rejoiced in the 2008 and 2012 elections naively believed the US had changed for the better. A significant number of Americans viscerally rejected Barack Obama. Now a similar number are revulsed by Donald Trump. The fault lines grow deeper.

Obama was far from perfect, but he tried to extricate the US from the “stupid war” in Iraq, created near-universal healthcare, negotiated an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme and signed up to the climate-change agreement. Trump has promised to abrogate all three.

Derision

When I covered the US for this newspaper, from 2009 until 2013, Trump was a subject of derision. He propagated the birther conspiracy theory, until Obama shut it down by producing his birth certificate.

At the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner, Trump was the butt of every joke. "Donald Trump often appears on Fox (television news), which is ironic, because a fox often appears on Donald Trump's head," Obama quipped.

Obama’s video gag was as funny then as it is painful now. A garish pink neon sign advertised the “Trump White House: hotel, casino, golf course and Presidential Suite”. The portico columns were painted gold. Women in bikinis frolicked in a hot tub on the north lawn.

Now Trump can do what he pleases with the White House and America. Cooler heads predict The Donald will be contained by the separation of powers, that "the system" he promised to blow up will limit damage. With both houses of Congress in Republican hands? With Trump's authoritarian tendencies and disregard for law?

How does one explain Trump’s election when a recent Gallup poll gave Obama a 57 per cent approval rating, when joblessness in the US is below 5 per cent?

Do struggling American workers seriously believe a shifty billionaire is going to redistribute wealth to them? And how could nearly a third of Hispanics vote for Trump, when he regards Mexicans as rapists who must be walled off or deported?

Trumpism

The seeds of Trump's victory germinated in the Republican party years ago. As Le Monde columnist Alain Frachon notes: "Republican leaders have long practised a form of Trumpism" which includes demonising enemies, refusing to compromise, and obstructionism. In the Republican-controlled Congress, it's been "Trump without Trump".

The culture wars that started in the 1990s and culminated with Trump’s election polarised opinion regarding healthcare, global warming, immigration and the media. Republican ideology became a clumsy amalgam of boundless faith in God and free markets, rejection of abortion and same-sex marriage, and what Trump’s programme calls the “natural and inalienable right” to own guns.

Once the preserve of the wealthy, business establishment, Trump transformed the Republicans into the party of the poor, and of revolt.

Along the way, the Grand Old Party absorbed suburban midwesterners and Bible-belt southerners. With Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential candidacy and the rise of the Tea Party, the lunatic fringe came to dominate its ranks. Trump’s campaign brought a new iteration, in the internet-based “alt-right” which opposes immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness.

Trump tweaked Republican orthodoxy, for example advocating protectionism that could spell a trade war with China. In foreign policy he's an isolationist compared with the interventionist Bush.

Trump dynamited the establishment, driving Jeb, the scion of the Bush dynasty, out of the race last February, and now bringing down the House of Clinton. Horrified as they were by Trump’s offensive manners, most of the Republican leadership rallied because he was popular and they wanted to keep their seats in Congress.

The Hungarian populist prime minister Viktor Orban, the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom Geert Wilders and Ukip leader Nigel Farage are Trump's friends in Europe.

So is Marine Le Pen, leader of the French Front National and the immediate beneficiary of Trump's victory. She hopes it will spark a chain reaction when France elects its president six months from now.

Like Trump, Le Pen appeals to angry, working-class white people who have lost out in globalisation and believe government is not the solution but the problem.

Traumatised

White Americans are traumatised to know they will become a minority within 50 years. The French extreme right believe there’s a conspiracy to replace the European population with Africans and north African Arabs. Like Trump supporters, they hark back to the “good old days” and want France to be “great again”.

Virtually all western democracies appear to be infected with the anger and disillusion that brought Trump to power. An opinion poll published by Le Monde on November 8th showed that close to three-quarters of the French electorate believe their elected officials are corrupt. They believe elections serve no purpose, and that political parties, trade unions and media block the country. Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" has certain resonance.

During the campaign, Le Pen told the right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles: "What Americans like is that he's a free man. If I were American, I'd choose Donald Trump."

On Wednesday morning, she tweeted congratulations before final results were in.

Donald Trump's scorn for multilateralism, the EU and Nato bodes ill for the future of transatlantic relations, while his election is a boon to dictators everywhere. Trump has expressed admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He's expected to give Putin a free hand in Ukraine and Syria. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must be delighted.

Any way you look at it, the world just became a more dangerous place.

Lara Marlowe is Paris Corespondent