On January 6, 2021, as the American electoral process is closing and Congress was about to certify the vote results, the outgoing president and election loser, Donald Trump, mobilized tens of thousands of supporters. He whipped them into a frenzy and led the mob against the Capitol. After four hours of riot, three men and two women dead, the coup attempt failed. The vice president Mike Pence refused to follow the insurgents : Joe Biden is declared the 46th president.
What remains of Capitol’s assault and five years later ?
Since that day, the United States has been living in a state of simmering civil war. Two assassination attempts on Donald Trump during his flamboyant 2024 election campaign, the assassination of an extremist, racist and masculinist influencer, Charlie Kirk, transformed into a martyr of the cause, are all signs of an extreme polarization of American society into Reds and Blues.
Opinion polls show that more than 40 million American citizens (out of 330) consider the use of group violence and assassination to be legitimate, either to fight against or in support of Donald Trump. I think tthe idea of resorting to extreme violence is gaining ground in society every day.
The defeat of January 6, 2021, did not soften political attitudes. On the contrary, cruelty dominates American society today. The government’s brutality in everything it does, the constant blackmail and intimidation waged by Donald Trump, his profound will of retaliation against those who stand in his way—all of this increases tensions a little more each day.
In the long term, Trumpism is an economic and political disaster (except for him and his clan). He has failed to keep ANY of his campaign promises : waging war abroad but not fighting inflation inside, failing to bring peace to Ukraine and by discrediting American foreign policy worldwide. And more than that: he fuels civil and racial conflicts by sending the army into major cities and by hunting down honest workers to send them back home across the border.
America gains nothing from Trumpism—no new market share, no industrial restoration, no wealth. America has lost its image as a great democracy, or as the world’s leading economic power. America is utterly devalued by a bunch of clowns in Washington.
No, really, Donald can no longer be my president. I feel no respect for him, just disdain and disgust. And that dates back to January 6, 2021.