'A vengeance campaign' What a Trump victory could bring

The US election primary season is in effect over.

- David Smith

Conventional wisdom holds that the two leading candidates will now pivot towards the centre in search of moderate voters.

But Donald Trump has never been one for conventional wisdom.

Detention camps, a justice department purge and potential withdrawal from Nato - his agenda pushes the boundaries set during his first presidential run. "In 2016, he was still... positioning himself to be beloved by everybody," said Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist.

"That's why 'drain the swamp' was a more populist, appealing message to all sides of the aisle because everyone, on some level, felt like: 'Washington's broken.' "Now you flash-forward to 2024 and we're getting a much darker version of Donald Trump, one who seems to be driven by imaginary grievances from the 2020 election.

There's nothing unifying about that message in any way; it's incredibly self-centred. This is a campaign for vengeance. In a lot of ways he is Ahab and Moby Dick is the United States of America." Trump announced his candidacy in 2015 by vowing to build a border wall, calling Mexicans "rapists" and promising to "make America great again".

In the campaign he promised tax cuts and vowed to repeal Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) and environmental regulations, describing the climate crisis as "a total hoax". He also pledged to nominate supreme court justices opposed to abortion.

Overseas, he questioned Nato while calling for improved relations with Russia. He also called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".