I woke up with sad news as if someone had died. How could a civilised nation go uncivil? How could Americans with sane minds trust a belligerent man like Donald Trump who hates everyone who isn’t white? What did you just do, oh America? I have never felt worried and sad as I did today. I thought people were going to act with some civility and sanity and vote with their minds and intellect. I am not a diehard supporter of Hillary. My motto was “anyone but Trump”. Anyone but a man filled with anger and hate. May God save us all. It will certainly be four years of turbulence and uncertainty. How could anyone trust a man with such a temperament? I would be terrified if I was living in America today. He will certainly make America un-great again. Let us hope and pray.
Abubakar Kasim
Toronto, Ontario
• You can’t blame Trump. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. He was conjured from the uncomfortable mess that many people have to live in. Trump, like the Tory Brexit hard right here, merely saw the opportunity to exploit that mess and get to power. More to blame is a smug, complacent upper middle class. More to blame still is a greedy financial and commercial elite making the most of globalisation and new technology. That lot will no doubt continue to do well. When the mass of people do worse, the only way out for that elite will be a much more explicit scapegoating of immigrants and of course “intellectuals and experts”. Merkel and Hollande will be shaking; their day is done. We are in a new age.
Ian Bishop
Sheffield
• There is enough evidence from Hungary, Poland, Turkey, the UK and now, tragically, the US that pluralism and its institutions are under deeply destabilising attack. Whether this constitutes the start of a paradigm shift away from liberal democracy I do not know, but liberals and progressives have a choice. We can wring our hands for being out of touch and yield to the raw and dirty energy of the demagogues, or we can fight to defend the hard-won gains of our civilised societies. We must try to coalesce around a new and inclusive narrative that doesn’t shy away from difficult debates around inequality, globalisation and immigration but that fearlessly exposes the false promise of rabble-rousers and firelighters who do not care about anyone – including the working classes they have courted – except themselves and power.
Dominic Brett
London
• The US election result has delivered a sharp lesson to the liberal elite. The most important debate is always between the rich and the poor – not between intellectuals. Clinton is still wealthy. Trump is still wealthy. Whether Clinton or Trump was elected, a poor and unemployed person is still poor and unemployed. Those without power and privilege have diminished agency in our globalised world. A vote costs nothing. Go figure.
Alison Hackett
Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
• Unless Donald Trump surprisingly reveals competences that have remained hidden over the last 25 years, it is predictable that within a year or so he will have stood down, overwhelmed by his inability to understand, let alone resolve, the many complex questions crowding his in-tray every day. On this scenario the US should be ready for the succession to the presidency of Vice-President Mike Pence. Either that or Trump would become a lame-duck president merely acting as the frontman for decisions effectively taken by his advisers.
Robin Wendt
Chester
• 230 years ago the founding fathers decided upon an electoral college to temper the popular vote if they felt a person was too extreme. The electoral college voters were not legally obliged to follow their state’s popular vote. Trump received just under 48% of the popular vote, as did Clinton, and the third candidate 5%. Thus those opposing Trump totalled 52% (a figure equal to those supporting Brexit). With Congress now also continuing with Republican majorities, and with a supreme court vacancy likely to be filled by a Trump nomination, surely the views of the founding fathers should be considered, especially as senior Republicans opposed Trump.
Tim Bornett
Old Buckenham, Norfolk
• Dear Mr President of the United States of America, We hope the role you want to play now as a new musketeer, uniting all Americans, can fix what you have injured in your campaign. We hope that your warfare to be elected was just a shocking marketing trick. We hope that you are ready to face the world America helped shape and that you relate your international strategies accordingly. As a businessman and a smart person, we hope you deal with your new, unexpected position in a fair and diplomatic way towards your people and the world. May you unite and cooperate instead of divide and exclude. Good luck! Congratulations for your success in becoming the next US president.
Diana Guerra Pinto
Rosersberg, Sweden
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
More readers’ letters on Donald Trump’s election victory
Brexit Britain and Trump’s America: two nations divided by a common politics
Barack Obama must fulfil his pledge to close Guantánamo Bay now
Voters crave politicians who actually stand for something
The rule of law and a reboot for democracy
Media and politicians are out of touch
