Former President Donald Trump has decisively won reelection to the White House, a political outcome that began reverberating around the globe in the hours after the polls closed Tuesday. After polling for weeks had shown a too-close-to-call race that might take days to conclude, Trump’s clear win struck many as a shock.
Analysts will likely spend years working to fully understand the forces that drove his return to power. But on the day after, top UC Berkeley scholars offer a sharp and sometimes unsettling assessment of the dynamics at play. Some cite Trump’s appeal to white voters, who looked past the insurrection against democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. One says that Americans are not ready to trust a woman with presidential power. And others say Trump’s victory reflects a global rage against political leadership and warn that it could help fuel a new era of global instability.
Below, read a full range of responses to the election results by UC Berkeley experts in political science, sociology, international relations and other fields.