Trump has won - but he cannot defeat the inevitability of digital change
After Donald Trump’s first presidential election victory in 2016, I wrote about how the technology sector had contributed to and enabled the controversial reality TV star’s political ascent – you can read the article here.
Much of what I said back then still stands up as Trump prepares to lead the US for a second term – not least the role of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, whose active support of Trump seems likely to put them in hugely influential positions of power in his new administration.
There can be little doubt that the ongoing digital revolution is the biggest driver of social and cultural change in the Western world. But Trump’s comprehensive election win suggests that we’re yet to realise what the digital transformation of society really means for all our futures.
Trump won by tapping into US voters’ economic dissatisfaction. The world is shifting around ordinary people, their wages don’t go as far as they used to, and they want someone to change that situation and someone to blame for it. Trump and his supporters chose to blame change itself – manifested by a post-industrial workforce, the rise in immigration, and the globalisation of supply chains. “Make America great again” translates into America used to be great before all this change.
And yet change is not going to stop. The digital revolution, as I said in 2016, is inevitable and unstoppable. It will sweep away 20th century social, cultural, economic and political norms. So who wins when the US votes to return to those old norms?
No matter what Trump enacts in the next four years, digital change is going to win – it’s only a question of when. Opponents of Trump need to consider the oft-cited quote by ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky by skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
We need to build a picture of what the future digital world is going to look like and how it will affect every individual – the benefits and the risks. And we need a roadmap to reach that future that carries people with it – easing the change, addressing their concerns, demonstrating at every stage that delivering change will make their lives better.
The early internet was seen as a great democratising force that would bring power to the people and wrench it from elites. In reality, all it has done is create a new elite – with Musk as its guiding star. The world faces a choice – either it submits to that new digital elite, or it finds a way to engage and involve people in building a positive digital future for them and with them. Keir Starmer, take note.
Right now, the Trump way is winning.