2024 A Call to Arms
The Final Act
Everything you always wanted to know about Trump's 2024 campaign (but were afraid to ask) - a candid and provocative analysis of the 2024 US presidential elections, with an updated and revised version to reflect the final victory of Donald Trump on November 5th 2024.
FAQ
Why the subtitle "The Final Act" ?
​
The US political scene witnessed an unprecedented historical occurrence when President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on July 21st 2024. After three weeks of sustained pressure from the Democratic Party, he concluded that he was no longer in the position to lead his party to victory against Donald Trump. The origin of the major crisis was Joe Biden’s performance, or lack thereof, in the first presidential debate against former President Trump on June 27th in Atlanta, Georgia.
This significant decision fundamentally changed the fundamentals and structure of the presidential race. It allowed Vice President Kamala Harris to take centre stage and become the official presumptive Democratic nominee within less than three weeks. This meteoric rise to prominence was anything but a foregone conclusion and reset the parameters of the election.
On November 5th, Donald Trump prevailed and won an undisputable victory, redefining the political landscape in America for a generation.
​
The final edition of the "2024 A Call to Arms" series explains why he won and what this means for the future of the United States and the new world order that is emerging.
​
What are you trying to achieve ?
​
The book's main title, "A Call to Arms," reflects its underlying philosophy. Despite not being American and not being able to participate directly in the forthcoming elections, we European citizens not only have the right but the duty to express our point of view. In the face of potentially world-shattering political changes, we cannot afford to ignore the dangers and hide from reality. Even if such a book may have had a very limited impact on American voters, it is nonetheless worthwhile to address the problem head-on and emphasise the gravity and urgency of the moment.
​
A Unique Perspective on Donald Trump
If a week is a long time in politics, a year is an eternity. 2004 is undoubtedly a year to be marked with a milestone in US and world history. Whilst Trump’s recent victory in the November 5th presidential elections is not a surprise, the road to victory was full of unexpected events. Who would have imagined in January 2024 that Joe Biden would be forced out of the race and that his vice president, Kamala Harris, would, like in the best “The West Wing” scripts, replace him on the Democratic ticket? However, one can presume that Aaron Sorkin would have written a different ending.
​
As a neophyte author and political commentator, I couldn’t have hoped for a more dramatic series of events, and each month brought its own twists and turns to an already unpredictable plot.
​
Unfortunately, we are not sitting comfortably in our living rooms watching a political series unfold in a fictional world. The events of 2024 are all too real and will have a fundamental impact on our lives, not just as individuals but as citizens of our respective countries.
​
To quote Stefan Zweig, “It is an iron law of history that those who are caught up in the great movements determining the course of their own times always fail to recognise them in their early stages.” I can only hope that the three editions of “2024 A Call to Arms” will humbly enlighten you and allow you to see through the fog of political Newspeak and propaganda. As the second Trump presidency gets underway on this very day, Inauguration Day, the 20th of January 2025, we can only wait with bated breath to see if the Cassandra-like proclamations of Trump’s opponents will prove them right. For my part, I am convinced that 2024 will mark the end of “a” world, a world we have become so accustomed to since the end of the Second World War. I do not subscribe to the dystopian view that all is lost and that it is the end of “the” world.
​
But we cannot succumb to democratic naivety anymore, and I, for one, have been guilty of that myself when I believed that the “Politics of Joy” espoused by Kamala Harris would vanquish Trumpism. The real world does not have happy endings, and the fight for freedom and democracy is precisely that: a battle that demands constant abnegation, resilience and effort.
​
Trump has ushered in a new world inspired by the dictators of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. The MAGA phenomenon is no longer a flash in the pan; it is a genuine political movement that has gained a prominent position in the American political landscape and that will influence political events the world over. Whether or not Trump is the reincarnation of Mussolini or of Hitler is ultimately a moot point. He is, first of all, himself and he has embodied a presence. Trump will never leave the political stage and will continue to embody the movement until his dying breath, and Trumpism will outlive him.
​
Let us not be under any illusions. Trumpism is fascism, is fascism, is fascism. The wolf is back amongst us, albeit under a different guise and with a distinct American flavour and accent.
​
As Europeans who have experienced first-hand the scourge of Nazism, it will be up to us to lead the charge against Trumpism and prevent it from engulfing all of Europe. There are important elections on the horizon in Europe. Germany will elect a new chancellor under the threat of the AfD, the neo-fascist party that has its stronghold in what used to be the old East-.Germany. Poland will hold its presidential election soon after, in May 2005 and on the horizon, France will have to choose whether or not the Rally for the Republic, born out of the ashes of the fascist National Front, will finally be able to take over the French presidency in 2027.
​
The forthcoming Trump presidency will seek to stamp its authority with a black mark on the future of the world in general and of Europe in particular. It will be up to us to fight fascism, wherever it comes from and however it presents itself. We owe it to our forefathers who sacrificed their lives on the beaches of Normandy, on the plains of Ukraine and in the rubble of Warsaw less than a century ago.
​
The Call to Arms to fight fascism is more critical today than it was a year ago. May we all have the wisdom and the courage to live up to what needs to be done to secure our future. The solution is more of Europe, a united, democratic Europe that will show the way forward out of the darkness and back into the light.