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Defying all predictions, all norms of decency, Washington’s establishment and the forces of ‘status quo’, and by running a racist, xenophobic, misogynist and anti-immigration/globalisation viciously populist campaign, a maverick populist outsider Donald Trump won the US elections.

Has the world again changed? Will he ‘Make America Great Again’ – and on whose expense? Is it a change for the worse than what was already too bad a situation, at least across the developed world and the troubled parts of the globe in particular? What does it entail for our part of the world?

This was one of the most atrocious and divisive election campaigns in the modern history of democracy, run by Donald Trump regardless of the so-called American values and against most norms that the neo-liberal Washington consensus held regarding the world economic order.

A frustrated white majority of working and middle classes who were extremely dissatisfied with no visible improvement in their lot and a variety of xenophobic and obnoxious undercurrents running across the United States made Trump trample over even his Republican Party that remained puzzled over the shenanigans of its grudging nominee. A non-political ‘outsider’, accused of numerous sexual assaults, a perpetual racist hate-monger and a federal tax evader, could yet make it by playing the most divisive cards against ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants while exploiting the frustration of the ‘white majority’ to do what he called “Brexit plus plus”.

The emergence of an angry and frustrated electorate – resulting in Brexit in the UK and the rise of ultra-nationalist parties in other European nations – got a most illusionary satisfaction in the vengeful emergence of a myopic billionaire. He was ironically supposed to reverse the socio-ethnic-economic dislocation caused by immigration and globalisation which were not working to the advantage of low-growth developed economies as much as they used to due to the rise of high-growth developing economies.

Trump’s real nemesis on the other extreme was Bernie Sanders, a socialist-democrat, who was also able to mobilise unprecedented grassroots support for all the good values that one could imagine in the American context. Unlike the not-much-trusted Hillary Clinton, her principled opponent in the Democratic Party’s primaries was a spotless, truthful, likeable and consistent champion of minority rights, workers rights, women and trans-gender rights and the real challenger of Wall Street hegemony and the un-delivering Washington DC establishment.

But a strong establishment of the Democratic Party preferred the pro-establishment and Wall Street-backed former secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, who was one of the most experienced persons to have contested in recent times. The young followers of Sanders were so motivated with the progressive democratic cause that Sanders’ espoused that they openly showed a lot of frustration with the nomination of Hillary whom they considered a part of the establishment that they had learnt to detest.

Despite not being liked by the electorate, the front runner in the race, Hillary Clinton, was able to build a coalition of educated white, ethnic minorities, African-Americans, Latinos and women. But a very balanced Hillary with a very well-defined agenda could not win over the constituencies that Sanders had so successfully mobilised. She was seen as the representative of establishment and her credentials were doubted by even many of those who hated Donald Trump and voted for her.

Badly-timed revelations by the FBI director regarding her emails, though denied two days before the elections for carrying any substantial material, cast Hillary in a bad light of being not responsible enough. The exceptional dream of a woman becoming America’s president has, unfortunately, gone sour and that too at the hands of a blatant sexist.

The most negative side of the election campaign was that policy issues took a back seat as Trump succeeded in making it more and more personalised, demagogic, xenophobic and divisive. It was an essentially a victory of negative vote casting. If Trump was eulogised by angry sections of a predominantly white electorate, the insecure and underpaid salaried classes in particular, he was more vociferously despised by the educated white youth and ethnic minorities and rights activists.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton was not even much liked by most of those who either voted for her or against her despite their aversion to Trump. The false hopes, racism and supra-nationalism built by Trump swayed the final count amid sharp divisions in American society on race, class, ethnic and gender lines. The elections have brought one whimsical crusader to control the executive and his reluctant Republican Party to control both the houses of the US legislature.

Doubling US economic growth, throwing out illegal immigrants while making the immigration process more tedious, putting up protectionist walls while renegotiating regional and trans-regional trade agreements, exerting greater pressure on allies to pay for their partnership, taking a much tougher line on terrorism, including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, rewriting the liberal economic agenda and reshaping globalisation under US hegemony – these are all are going to be tall orders.

How far Trump is going to be successful in renegotiating the world order to suit US interests as opposed to other rising powers, China and Russia, is a moot question. Also: how far will he go back on his divisive politics to overcome the huge divides that he has further exacerbated? Playing anger on cleavages and divides is easy, but unifying them will be a much greater headache. What will be the shape of the US and the world after four years of its 45th president? These are most troubling questions.

Trump’s worldview represents a more hegemonic, interventionist and militaristic imperil power that can potentially further endanger world peace. It comes at a time when globalisation had entered a stage where new players were finding greater space and borders and tariff barriers were being relaxed to new waves of immigrants.

The tide of globalization is, paradoxically, being reversed by the ‘Lead Nation’ – to be emulated by others on the capitalist path of development. It may reignite a new cold war and greater tensions. The tension between the US and China/Russia may witness some ugly turns and the war on terror may become bloodier with greater phobia against the Muslims.

We may see the rise of more Trumps, Putins, Erdogans and Modis, making this a much more dangerous world. In South Asia, we will witness greater harmony between Trump and Modi not only against China but also against Pakistan. The demands for ‘do more’ will be coming with greater threats, which Pakistan will least afford to ignore. The world at large is wondering what this crazy president-elect will do. Let’s save our breath and wait for how he unfolds and responds to his limitations.

The writer is a senior journalist.

News of Donald Trump’s victory prompted hundreds of boisterous young Americans to gather outside the White House. But they were there not to celebrate. Instead, the overwhelming majority were carrying protest posters: ‘Welcome to Hell’, ‘We stand with the Muslims’, ‘We are for the Immigrants’. Some university students expressed disappointment with tears, other climbed atop trees waving ‘We hate Trump’ posters.

Trump supporters were just a handful, and there were heated debates between them and Clinton supporters. This is the beginning of a deepening and potentially terrifying divide within the US.

So who is Donald Trump, now to be sworn-in as US’ 45th president? In 1998, on the Oprah Winfrey show a successful businessman, Donald Trump, had said he was a pretty conservative guy, critical of the Democrat far-left approach as well as the Republicans too-far-right ways. But he had also ruled out his own role in politics.

Eighteen years later  Trump flips and declares he will run for presidency. He won his fiercely fought battle for the Republican nomination, laced with abuse and acrimony targeting a sizeable portion of those who make America’s ‘melting pot’ – the Latinos, the Hispanics, the Muslims and other immigrants. The unconventional Trump gave a shock treatment to US’ Nato allies, insisting they pay up their security bills, and to other key allies including Japan and South Korea by declaring that the US needed to spend at home, ‘to fix’ America instead of doling out security to friends abroad. He promised to tear all trade agreements that hurt the US industry and left Americans jobless.

In his neighbourhood, he promised that the US would literally be walled secure from illegal immigrants by constructing a wall at the border. He called some of them rapists, some killers, and Muslims terrorists. His promise was to throw out illegal immigrants.

Russia’s Putin is Trump’s great friend and with him Trump had announced he would go after Daesh more decisively than Obama did. According to him, Hillary Clinton was going to be worse than Obama, whose foreign policy in the Middle East had been weak. Muslim immigrants from terrorism-inflicted countries, including Pakistan, would be stopped. The deal with Iran would be repealed. ‘America first’ and reclaiming America from the ‘other’ from within was also Trump’s declared resolve.

Once in the race, Trump’s aggressive and abusive political attacks extended beyond his opponent Hillary Clinton. He began attacking the media; the media was partisan, the media was lying, the media hated him. Don’t believe the polls, he insisted in his last rally. The media is trying to demonise me, he implied. He began saying the unthinkable in American politics: the institutions are partisan, he insisted; the Washington establishment is against me, he yelled Trump yelled. Indeed, former CIA officials had said that if Trump had his finger on the nuclear trigger the world would be in danger.

The more Trump’s words and actions, including his tax evasion etc, became public, the angrier it made this Rambo-sounding Republican candidate. He insisted conspiracies had been made to prevent him from becoming president. And, finally, when the FBI’s Comey almost retracted, within three days      of his earlier statement on new emails-related problems for Hillary Clinton, Trump was livid.

Almost an outsider Republican, Trump failed to get support from several key Republicans including the Bush family. In unprecedented ways, the Republicans broke rank. Colin Powell too announced his support for Hillary Clinton. Trump, he said, insulted “us daily with his actions”.

The stock markets, Wall Street and many in the business community did not support Trump. His words spelt unpredictability, which businesses dislike. Trump was to US allies what Brexit was to the UK’s EU partners. The diplomatic buzz was completely convinced that the Trump card would spell disaster in their relations with the US.

While Trump insisted the Washington establishment was conspiring against him because they wanted the status quo of vested interests to remain intact, his detractors saw him as ‘a political hand-grenade’. One of his supporters explained to me that “He’s like a matador; he will bring down the structure of this belt-way politics that all mainstream politicians play”.

But no one, not the polls, not the media and nor the analysts’ saw that this political hand grenade would actually land in the White House. However, the people have spoken, the vote has been cast and the grenade has been lobbed on the White House. And he will be in actual control because the Republicans have gained control of the House and the Senate too. So, while the Democrats shed tears over having pushed Bernie Sanders – politically less liked and morally less controversial than Hillary Clinton – outside the presidential race, Donald Trump will have his own Republican nominee in the prized position of a Supreme Court judge.

Why did Trump win? His words of fear, insecurity, divisiveness and of re-taking America back from the ‘other’ within America resonated with Middle America, the Bible Belt and others who are not heard so often. It’s the voices and the experiences of those on the cosmopolitan east and west coasts of America that we hear and who form the narrative.

While the media, the political pundits and outsiders like us rallied forward multiple reasons, through agile mental gymnastics, of why only Hillary Clinton would win, the US voters, of whom 70 percent are White Americans, 14 percent Black American, 11 percent Hispanics and 2 percent Muslims, asked a man with no experience of politics to come lead their country.

They are banking on him for a ‘new America’. But whose new America? If the post-9/11 America has created deep insecurities for Muslims, this result – on 11/9 – has widened the net of America’s insecure population roping in the Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos. The hand-grenade can only destroy and so Trump must now reconstruct himself.

The writer is a senior journalist.