Faced with a comprehensive agenda which can shift the direction of the world, a democratic and progressive response to US President Donald Trump’s announcements and policies cannot limit itself to criticising and resisting. It should be able to build a convincing alternative from now on.

Trump’s 2.0 agenda

Trump’s ‘revolution of common sense’, as he said in his inaugural speech, is driven by the keen interest to keep doing business as usual, without climate concerns, without stringent digital regulations, without too many hindrances or excessive taxes for top entrepreneurs. Some promises are made to get workers’ political support: their wages should be supplemented with untaxed tips or bonuses and their jobs should be protected by trade tariffs as well as by tougher controls on immigration. To force the way for his agenda, President Trump is ready to mobilise and accept all the necessary means, including pardoning participants in ‘spontaneous’ riots to overturn democratic decisions and elections, if they stand in his way.

Furthermore, a self-centred agenda to ‘Make America Great Again’ neglects the rest of the world’s challenges regarding health, climate, pollution, poverty, development, access to technology or lack of financial resources due to the loss of taxation revenue and the high debt asphyxia. This approach translates into the US’s disengagement from multilateral institutions regarding climate, trade, development aid, taxation and AI. International relations will be mainly shaped by bilateral bargaining, giving the US the upper hand by using its stronger powers based on trade, currency, armament, energy and technology.

New sources of power and the decisive factor for hegemony in the future – the digital revolution and AI – will also count on an ambitious plan of financial and political support for US companies operating at home and around the world, in the absence of common agreed global rules.

A shocking paroxysm of such an agenda is reached when one single man – Elon Musk – can be a top tech entrepreneur, a rich sponsor of the American president, his main advisor, the head of an important horizontal governmental office, the owner of an influential social media network and, last but not least, a political free-lancer allowed to interfere in military conflicts or elections across the world.

Foreseeable consequences of Trump’s agenda

Beyond the unpredictability and the many surprises we will be facing, some of the consequences of Trump’s agenda are already foreseeable:

– a weakening of basic market regulations, revising fairer taxation of capital, services and goods. Sometimes with a populist tone, such as the one Trump suggested during his inauguration speech when he said “you can buy the kind of car you prefer!”;

– the phasing-out the Green New Deal in the US;

– a reduction in social welfare with the argument of streamlining public expenditure;

– the reduction of women’s rights and their equality with men, increasing ethnic- and gender-based discrimination, and undermining general human rights;

– a general weakening of the rule of law and a pre-eminence given to the rule of force whenever necessary;

– the active promotion of a far-right international duly equipped with political, media and financial means;

– and, in global terms, declining responsibilities in the face of mounting global challenges such as climate change, poverty, military conflicts or unregulated AI. Finally, spreading a new Cold War-atmosphere focusing on confronting China in many areas, and turning a global rules-based order into a global bazaar.

Priorities for a democratic progressive response

In the face of this comprehensive agenda to shift the direction of the world, a democratic and progressive response cannot limit itself to criticise and resist. It should be able to start building a convincing alternative from now on.

Progressive and democratic forces among the American population will be the first to be tested and a lot will depend on them with a view to the US midterm elections in 2026.

Many countries consider that global challenges should be addressed by deeper international cooperation. They should engage in partnerships and coalitions to progress on objectives like the ones recently defined by the Pact of the Future, adopted by a large majority of countries at the United Nations General Assembly last September 2024.

Many eyes are now turning towards Europe, perceived as a global actor committed to democratic and multilateral governance, despite its many internal problems and the increasing influence of far-right actors.

In this special historical international juncture, Europe has particular responsibilities:

– to prevent a tariffs war which would lead to a loose-loose game destroying jobs and livelihoods in many regions of the world;

– to keep pushing for a green fair transition, decarbonising all sectors and strengthening its energy sufficiency and security;

– to use this transition to create new forward-looking competitive advantages and to make its social welfare future-proof;

– to shape the digital revolution not only with the necessary regulations, but also with active industrial and innovation policies to build its own capacities in data management, semiconductors, computing and cloud services and AI;

– to protect the rule of law, democracy and the media system against external interference;

– to support developing countries to reduce poverty, fight climate change and improve migration management;

– to reform the existing multilateral institutions and implement the agreed plans to strengthen international cooperation.

Nevertheless, there are some basic conditions to enhance Europe’s autonomy to move on with these priorities. The first is to reach a credible and fair ceasefire solution for the war in Ukraine – which also requires a swift strengthening of Europe’s defence capacity. And the second is to ensure a European capacity to decide democratically on the direction to take – which requires stronger protection of its media ecosystem, not only with regulations but also with a stronger European media infrastructure.

The moment to make big decisions is now. The argument of lacking financial resources is not acceptable. Europe does have them and can mobilise them via private and public channels. This only requires vision and the political will to meet historical responsibilities and to give a future to the European project.

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