Reflections on America

President Donald Trump delivers remarks to staff during a Christmas Reception in the White House, Monday, December 1, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

[From our U.S correspondent, fresh back from the States]

American voters wanted Trump, but they got something else

Like Australia, the United States has endured years of extreme left-wing policies. Several states remain firmly entrenched in this ideology, with California serving as a prime example.
Higher taxes, anti-establishment protests, a lenient approach to drugs, and weak immigration policies are just some of the issues plaguing the state.

California also gave the world Kamala Harris. The state should thank its lucky star-spangled banner that the rest of the nation didn’t declare war on it.
In the lead-up to the 2024 US election, voters were presented with a clear choice: reject Biden’s extreme left-wing agenda, or allow it to continue. Their mood was to send Bidenomics to an early grave, but it wasn’t always obvious that they were ready for Trump Mk 2 or wanted to take their chances with Harris.

Trump’s campaign included stronger law enforcement, reducing bureaucratic bloat, rebuilding the military, cutting taxes, and implementing tighter border security. Once again, Trump offered Americans what they wanted to hear-even if some of his ideas seemed a bit extreme-and decorated with rambling.
However, his approach made a strong and much-needed political statement that resonated with the voting public.
This was evident in the election turnout: approximately 65% of eligible voters participated, down slightly from 2020’s 66.8% but still high compared to previous elections.
America wanted Biden and Harris gone.

The Promises vs the Reality
More than 12 months later, Trump seems to be failing to deliver on his agenda-though not without being an entertaining spectacle.
There was the public falling-out with Elon Musk, the appointment of unqualified loyalists to key government positions, the erratic “on again, off again” tariff wars, the chaotic approach to downsizing government, and the government shutdown. It’s a script straight out of a Netflix series.
A big item is that US debt now exceeds $38 trillion. That’s 3 trillion more than when Trump took office – an 8% jump. Proposed tax cuts and ballooning spending are likely to worsen the situation.
Americans probably don’t mind a bit of chaos in their life, but higher debt and the ongoing lack of predictability probably isn’t what they voted for.
But at least it’s better than the unpalatable alternative.

I don’t think there’s any doubt Biden’s / Harris’s push for left-wing climate policies could have done even more damage. The good news is that we’ll never know if that’s the case.
In other words, the glass half-full is that Trump stopped left-wing politics in their tracks. The US is safe from the left doing more damage for now.
Trump had the right narrative, but the polling suggests the electorate is concerned that he’s not delivering on it.
The silver lining is that for both sides of politics, Trump can’t run for a third term.
If the Republicans can replace Trump with someone with more political experience, then it’ll give the US a chance to make sure Bidenomics stays in that grave.
That assumes Trump goes peacefully.

[Editor: Thank you N, for your thoughts. I tend to be more approving of Trump 2.0. Whilst he has the transactional business approach to public policy, which errs in discarding politics and ancient enmities, his foreign policy, instinctual more than doctrinal, has been fairly sound, despite his frustrations with different cultural ways of thinking. The U.S. continues its demographic advantage over China, providing that balanced, targeted immigration, as statecraft, is deployed, as opposed to the previous porous border.  Moreover, his domestic politics are rooted in common sense as opposed to dogma. The nation may have reached peak Woke. The President’s economics (DOGE, tax cuts, energy independence, on-and-off-again tariffs exacerbating sticky inflation) are largely a matter of bluff and bluster, leading to eventual compromise.

But no-one could disagree with the bi-partisan elephant in the room: America’s fiscal deficit has been in nightmare territory for decades, and it continues to metastasize. In Colossus (2005), historian Niall Ferguson wrote: “Americans like security. But they like Social Security more than national security. It is their preoccupation with the hazards of old age and ill health that will prove to be the real cause of their country’s fiscal overstretch, not their preoccupation with the hazards of terrorism and the “axis of evil.”…Suppose that today the government could get its hands on all the revenue it can expect to collect in the future, but had to use it, also today, to pay off all its future expenditure commitments, including debt service. Would the discounted present value of all its future revenues suffice to cover the discounted present value of all its future expenditures? The answer is a decided no. According to [a senior Fed economist and and deputy asst. secretary of the US Treasury, Messrs. Gokhale and Smetters] their calculations, the shortfall amounts to $45 trillion.”  This in 2003.]