In Georgia, Trump's election sows anxiety among Democrats

Photo: Elijah Nouvelage Agence France-Presse Kamala Harris supporters at an election night event in Atlanta, Georgia, on the night of November 5-6, 2024

Fabien Deglise in Atlanta

Published yesterday at 16:06

• United States

“It's terrifying.”

On the campus of Spelman College in Atlanta, the heart of the civil rights movement and the rise of African-American women's education in Georgia, Karson Davis let her words Wednesday morning ease some of his despair.

“I feel like I woke up in a nightmare, my worst nightmare,” said the woman in her early twenties. “I voted for the first time in my life on Tuesday so I could witness the first African-American woman in the White House. But that’s not what happened. How could so many people—and so many women, especially—have voted for Donald Trump? ? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since I got up. And I think it’s going to take us a long time to make sense of it all.”

The day after an election night with a surprising outcome, many people were upset in the metropolis of Georgia, the southeastern American state that Donald Trump brought back under the Republican fold after losing it in 2020.

And the former president went even further. After a dark and acrimonious campaign, he was sworn in at the polls in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the 47th president of the United States, achieving the rare feat for a deposed president to return to the White House for a second term. This is the second time this has happened in American history: only Grover Cleveland had done it before, in 1892.

Another coup: he won the majority of the popular vote in the process, something no Republican had managed to do for more than two decades, with George W. Bush in 2004.

“My emotions this morning go beyond shock,” said Joan Martin, wife of former Democratic Rep. Jim Martin, who served in Georgia’s Congress from 1993 to 2001. “Even though he was just elected, Donald Trump is still an aberration who poses a serious threat to the country. His immigrant deportation agenda, if he goes through with it, is going to be a tragedy. It’s going to have a huge impact on everyone’s lives: farmers won’t be able to find workers, many services will be affected by the loss of millions of invisible jobs that these people hold.” »

« But the scariest thing, » adds the retiree we met by chance on the streets of downtown, « is that he has just been given the opportunity to behave like an autocrat — and that’s dangerous, especially since he’s surrounded by very disturbing people, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk. »

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Radical promises

During the election campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that Donald Trump had promised him “control” of public health agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

The former independent candidate, who joined the populist in August, aspires to inject the conspiratorial visions that he has been peddling for years about the world of science. In the last days before the election, the two men also raised the possibility of banning vaccines, without specifying which ones. The Republican said that he would let Kennedy “go wild on food” and “go wild on drugs” if he were reelected.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also promised to end the fluoridation of public water systems. Yet it is one of the greatest public health advances in the United States: The measure has prevented millions of cavities, saved tens of billions of dollars in dental costs and improved children's oral health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On his way to the White House, Donald Trump also said he would appoint billionaire Elon Musk as secretary of “cost reduction” in the federal apparatus. The tycoon who owns Tesla and SpaceX, but also the social network X, which helped elect the populist, has spoken of cuts of 2 trillion dollars, a sum larger than the combined budgets of the Departments of Defense, Education and Homeland Security.

In recent days, the New York Times recalled that Elon Musk’s companies were to receive around three billion dollars in 2023 from contracts with 17 federal agencies. He would then be required to intervene in the operation of several government agencies, while 20 investigations or reviews are underway into his contracts, the American daily stresses.

A controllable “madman” ?

Sitting with a colleague along a commercial street in Atlanta, Angel Rodriguez, a maintenance manager at a downtown building, sees no problem with it. “I voted for Donald Trump, and I’m very happy this morning. He’s going to end all these wars, revive the economy, lower prices, make housing affordable. He’s a businessman: he knows how to handle these things.”

The man in his fifties admits, however, that he doesn’t really agree with the populist’s immigration policies. “Let’s wait and see what he’s going to do,” he adds.

Photo: Fabien Deglise Le Devoir For Karol Smith, the election of Donald Trump will not change anything in his life, any more than the election of previous presidents.

He specifies, however, that he is not too worried about the statements of the Republican who, throughout the campaign, has suggested a presidency that may be a little more autocratic than the previous one. “I don't think he's going to behave like a dictator. He's crazy, but not that crazy. I think he's mostly saying crazy things to get noticed, to scare people and to gain respect. He's a bully, that's all.”

Further down the street, renovation specialist Karol Smith tries to be philosophical. “Trump says he’s going to cut social services, but he won’t, because he knows Americans need it,” he says. “His election won’t change anything for us. Yes, he’ll warm up a few seats to put his people in office—like everyone else does. And, ultimately, what’s going to happen? ? Life will go on. We can pretend in every election that we’re building the world. But, in fact, we’re just living in it.”

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-Le Devoir.