The Trump Ascendancy: Travels in America
By Abraham David
Australian consultant Abraham David travelled across America on public transport during the 2024 election period, when Trump gained a a thumping victory. Here he looks back at the experience. What he saw on the streets explains why Trump is now in the White House.
After traveling through America for three weeks, through Washington, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and ending up in Los Angeles, it was easy to see why Trump was so successful in the 2024 election. From Amtrak trains to Greyhound buses to mass transit in LA it’s not hard to understand the deep decay that has been going on in American society. A few experiences stand out, all in their own way explaining the frustration of American working people.
Washington DC is, in many ways, the capital of the world. I was there for meetings with people who are part of this decision-making world. The world of the Beltway, so far removed from those who toil to make America what it is: a country of vast natural wealth and creative people from many lands. On a budget and preferring not to pay for a central Washington hotel – which are in a price bracket out of the reach of most – I booked in to the Days Inn Hotel, a hotel chain built for car obsessed America, some 20 -30 minutes by taxi from Washington’s Union Station.
Arriving after dark at the hotel I sensed something was not quite normal. There was, an army of security guards and none of the normal hustle and bustle of a popular hotel. I asked the night manager, "What’s going on?"
He was a young Mexican-American who, I discovered, was immensely kind and quite astute. He explained to me that I was one of the last people whose booking was being honoured at by the hotel.
The whole hotel, all 250 rooms, had been bought by the Federal government to house asylum seekers.
Wow I thought, this is going to be quite an experience, being surrounded by people who’ve survived the desperate tramp to arrive in America, the land of infinite hope.
People from Latin America and in particular Venezuelans seemed to be the main group. My Mexican friend, the night manager explained to me that this had been going on for over a year and that the hotel was mainly housing women and children. He was sworn to secrecy not to talk about it, but with a little gentle persuasion he opened up about the goings on.
Earlier in the year the hotel had fallen under the control, he said, of Nigerian gangs who were using it as a base for drug dealing and prostitution. They had been cleaned out by the time I got there, but this was the reason for so many security guards.
These people went through traumatic times to get to the land of milk and honey. The night manager, acting as interpreter, asked the question to a young girl no more than 14: “What was it like, your journey coming from Venezuela?”
With expressionless eyes she answered in Spanish: “I was raped 60 times on my journey.”
A high cost to find a better life.
Human empathy is a natural response to such suffering. However, many staff at the hotel were resentful that the asylum seekers were getting free accommodation, $2000 on a cash card to buy food and essentials and were able to work, competing in many cases with local low-wage workers.
This is another reason working Americans are angry about the migrant explosion. Beyond competing with them as cheap labour, asylum seekers are taking away affordable accommodation from ordinary Americans. With this experience I was lucky or unlucky enough to see first hand America’s immigration crisis.
My next experience was on the Amtrak train heading to West Virginia, the home of the Appalachian Mountains, moonshine, fiddle and banjo music. And King Coal, which allowed the industrialisation of America. But the Amtrak train is not an easy trip as Amtrak shares the railway with existing freight operators. So, if you get caught behind a freight train on your journey it is very, very slow.
Everybody who travels has this experience. “Please we must apologise for our train being late as we are stuck behind a slow-moving freight train.”
“Not again,” my fellow passengers sigh. A smart aleck pipes up, “The train’s late because of the Russians”. Everyone laughs.
Not to be outdone a woman yells, “No, it’s not the Russians. It’s the Chinese”. A bigger laugh.
This cynicism about what’s causing the problems of American society, with the farce of foreign conspiracy tales being laughed at by most people, is another example of why in 2024 the Democrats didn’t understand the thinking of everyday Americans people.
America, once the world leader in terms of infrastructure, has now fallen behind most of the world. It’s getting harder and harder to fool people that who have to put up with constant inconvenience.
This has been all brought about by short term profit motives. It all comes home to me even deeper when catching a Greyhound bus a few days later.
Greyhound, the lifeline for poor Americans, has been bought by a private equity firm. They have closed down many of the Greyhound depots that sit on valuable real estate. So instead of comfortably waiting for a bus like a normal civilised person, the sell off of Greyhound property means passengers are left to stand high and dry on street corners without shelter or toilets. Once again, the American story of putting profits before people is on display.
Endless wars have affected many normal people. In Charleston, West Virginia, I sat down and talked to a group of construction workers. They proudly describing described themselves as those who “clock on and off”. They told me they had all been in the military; as they say, they had “served”. I ask, what was it like, where did you serve?
“Man, I served in Afghanistan, we started with the Taliban and after 15 years we ended up with the Taliban. The only people who got somethin’ out of it were, private contactors led by Haliburton,” one said.
He explained to me how the military complex works from his perspective. While he was doing the fighting, he said, others were making serious money, with hamburgers in the mess hall being supplied by contractors and billed back to the the US government at $50 a piece. Just one of the many grifts that goes along with the American war machine, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, Ukraine and on and on.
Kamala Harris had Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney campaigning for her in 2024. Dick Cheney is a long-serving Halliburton executive who now chairs the company. For these workers, this was a big negative. Their memories of Halliburton's role in the wars was a lived experience.
By the time I got to Los Angeles, where the mass transit system doubles as living space for many homeless people, where lifts are used as public toilets, and constant warnings tell you to guard your valuables, it became obvious that while Trump offered many snake oil policies, for many working Americans he offered a better alternative.
Enlighten us in the snake oil policies please.