5:59 v originále: Trump 2.0: The Hows and Whys of Donald Trump’s Comeback

Donald Trump did it again. His return to the White House has many Americans jumping for joy and quite a few trembling in fear and anger, which perfectly illustrates how divided the US has become. How will that affect Trump’s second presidency once he assumes office in January next year?

Republican candidate significantly improved on his two previous election results, both from 2016 when he surprised everyone - himself possibly included - by defeating Hillary Clinton and from 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden, which he however refused to acknowledge. This time he managed to defeat the Vice President Kamala Harris in a rather resolute manner.

„I think it does represent the popular will,“ says Alexander Kliment, senior writer and editor at GZERO Media. „He won the popular vote. And that tells us that more Americans wanted Trump and Trumpism, then they wanted Harris and the Democrats. Period.“

You can listen to the special episode of the podcast 5:59 in the audio player:

This - according to Kliment - does not necessarily mean that American voters do not care about Trump's disparaging comments about minorities or women or that they completely ignore the fact that he is the first US president to be convicted in a criminal trial.

However, other issues clearly mattered more to the voters this year: negative feelings towards the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, the anger of some of them aimed at the Democratic Party and illegal immigration to the United States, which has escalated in recent years.

All of these factors combined and helped Trump become president again, says Kliment. „What's the expression in Czech? Dvakrát do stejné řeky nevstoupíš (You can't step in the same river twice)? Well, Amerika vstoupila do té řeky podruhé (America did step in that river again), right?“ notes the New York-based journalist who studied Slavic literature. But the river, he says, will be „considerably deeper and its current much stronger“ than it was during the first Trump presidency.

„I think he's going to come in with a very well settled team. And that, combined with his strong mandate and relatively few constraints, will put him in a position to pursue - if he wants to - a much more radical agenda much more effectively than in his first term,“ says Alexander Kliment.

How will Trump's presidency affect the ethnically diverse and politically extremely polarised American society? And could Trump’s second victory over a female opponent seriously hinder prospects of the United States ever having a woman as its chief executive? Listen to the full interview using the audio player at the top of the article.