On a 27-hour practice from Florida a month after Donald Trump was voted again into the White Home, passengers mentioned their hopes and fears for the longer term.
The Silver Meteor is among the longest rail routes within the US, masking 2200km on the nation’s east coast. But regardless of its identify, an Amtrak guard advised Euronews that the practice hardly ever runs sooner than 100km/h and customarily arrives no less than an hour late.
Stretching from Miami on the backside of Florida to New York Metropolis within the nation’s north, its route crosses a number of key swing states, together with Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In the back of the practice, furthest from the noisy locomotive, are non-public cabins and “roomettes” that value over $2,000 (€1,900); on the entrance, you could have your “coach class” seats at a few tenth of that. The 2 sections are divided by a bar, which, over the course of Euronews’ 27-hour journey, was overseen by a 60-year-old lady providing a reducing remark with each drink.
Approaching the bar from the again of the practice got here Linda and Paul, a pair from Melbourne, Florida, travelling to Washington, DC, for his or her tenth wedding ceremony anniversary. Chatting with Euronews over vodka and lemonade, Linda was interested by European views on the election — her husband much less so.
“Oh f***,” he laughs, “are we going to speak about politics?”
After a chiding from Linda — a agency supporter of defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris — Paul implied he had voted for Trump, however reluctantly, saying that “the final election was about girls’s rights, this one was about cash.”
Talking as her husband went to get one other drink, Linda mentioned she wasn’t satisfied by Paul’s clarification. She mentioned that reproductive rights remained her prime problem (these nonetheless matter to round an eighth of all feminine voters).
“Whether or not I unintentionally conceive a child or get raped, regardless of the case could also be, I wish to have a option to not have that youngster that I do not need,” Linda mentioned. “I wish to be revered. I work simply as laborious as my husband, and I nonetheless receives a commission much less.”
Regardless of the vast majority of girls backing Harris, greater than 1,000,000 switched to Trump this election, which left Linda perplexed.
“It’s unbelievable. (Trump) has no backing for girls’s rights. He diminishes them on a regular basis,” she identified.
Paul returned from the bar, scowling over a remark from the bar supervisor. Because the solar set and the practice trundled into northern Florida, the dialog turned to democracy.
The previous president, now again for his second try on the wheel, infamously advised voters throughout the election that “in 4 years … we’ll have it mounted so good; you’re not going to need to vote.” Former advisers have in contrast him to a “fascist,” warning that he needs to erode democracy for his personal ends.
But Paul was unperturbed by this and insisted his tentative help for Trump didn’t imply he was detached to the significance of democracy — removed from it.
“This isn’t a dictatorship,” he mentioned. “That is not how our nation was based.”
Because the practice crossed into Georgia, the pair headed off for dinner of their cabin.
“I do know she’s proper,” Paul concluded. “Love you,” replied Linda.
‘Freakin Muppets’
Sat shut by was Mark, a US Air Pressure Vietnam Struggle veteran and building employee on his approach house to Pennsylvania, consuming a can of beer with “Help the Troops” emblazoned on the facet.
“I am gonna make one assertion quite a lot of these individuals aren’t gonna prefer it,” he exclaimed, trying round. “F*** Trump.”
Lois, a 78-year-old former trainer and banker, appeared up from a phrase sport on her cellphone.
Mark did not flinch. “I imply it. Mr Trump is not for the poor individuals, he’s for the wealthy. Finish of story.”
“In my space, just about, , the poor individuals have been for Harris, the wealthy have been for Trump,” he mentioned.
Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral Faculty votes have been on the centre of the 2024 election end result. No candidate has received the presidency with out the state since George W Bush in 2004; this time spherical, Trump received the state by 120,000 votes.
Mark was grateful that the election itself was peaceable however questioned whether or not that peace would final.
“He received. I’ve no drawback with that, however I say, inside 18 months, there’ll be battle. Watch and see. In Korea, Ukraine, the Center East.”
The incoming president has promised to finish the battle in Ukraine in “sooner or later” and obtain “peace within the Center East”, providing no particulars in both case.
Lois raised her eyebrows above her cat-eye glasses. “They remind me of little boys combating with one another,” she mentioned, rolling her eyes. “You then throw in crackers Kamala. She has the goofiest chortle I ever heard.”
Lois declined to which approach she voted however mentioned her dad and mom had labored for “the elephant” in her youth, a reference to the Republican emblem.
“Anyway, cash talks, bull**** walks,” she concluded, leaving it unclear which candidate she was referencing.
“Properly, Trump’s nonetheless strolling,” Mark retorted.
A really, very conservative marketing campaign
A few hours later, the practice pulled into Savannah on the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Becoming a member of the practice have been Ocean and Kobe, a younger couple working for NGOs in DC, getting back from visiting household down south.
“I believe there’s part of me that at all times feels a level of concern within the South. I really feel very on guard,” Kobe mentioned, attributing his nervousness partly to gun tradition but additionally his “liberal bubble”.
The couple described themselves as being to the left of the Democrats and weren’t followers of Harris’ marketing campaign — notably as a result of she declined to distance herself from the Biden administration’s coverage towards Israel and its marketing campaign in Gaza.
“Trump’s victory goes to imply that lots of people are going to endure greater than they in any other case would have. That hurts,” mentioned Kobe. “However I believe Harris’ victory would have additionally meant that lots of people are going to endure unjustly.”
“Individuals are going to die who mustn’t die.”
As some passengers began to float off to sleep, Julie and Kevin boarded the practice with their daughter, adopted by their buddy Mike. They have been heading up from the border of South and North Carolina to New York Metropolis, the place their daughter could be participating in a dance parade in Instances Sq..
“I used to be thrilled by the outcomes,” Julie advised Euronews. A self-proclaimed “dance mother,” she was amongst a majority of voters whose prime priorities included the financial system and immigration.
“It’s about getting the costs down, and stopping this example with the immigrants coming in,” she defined. “They’re getting advantages, they simply are available in and get $4,500 a month. I actually imagine should you don’t have a US passport or US citizenship, you shouldn’t be capable to simply are available in and get free cash, free companies, free training.”
As she was speaking, a Fox Information notification popped up on her cellphone.
Web migration rose to 1.6 million newcomers in 2023, its highest stage in years, and fixed protection of the problem nudged many citizens in the direction of Trump. For his or her half, Democrats identified to no avail that the president-elect had brazenly blocked a bipartisan immigration invoice for political acquire. (The overwhelming majority of immigrants don’t robotically qualify for public advantages, if in any respect.)
Mike, a hockey workforce mascot wearing a Santa hat, agreed with Julie but additionally pointed a finger at US residents he noticed as benefiting from the welfare system.
“I don’t wish to single out single moms, however there are individuals who have one other child simply to get more cash,” he mentioned. A mom travelling alone with three younger kids appeared over.
Whereas all three have been comfortable Trump received, none had full religion in him or the political system basically. “They each have agendas you see, even that assassination try on the incoming president, I believe each events had one thing to do with that,” mentioned Mike.
Julie sighed. “Properly issues have gotten to vary. I actually hope they do.”
‘I cried for days’
Within the early hours of the morning, two brothers sat within the bar carriage, surreptitiously consuming cognac on the sly from a kids’s SeaWorld bottle lined in dolphins. They have been coming to the tip of a chess sport.
“He is kicking my ass proper now,” laughed Carl, a 70-year-old former engineer, as his youthful brother Paris took a knight. Each queens have been gone, and each kings have been weak.
Turning to politics, Carl’s smile dissipated. “Man, I cried for days after that election,” he advised Euronews, shaking his head. “The factor that harm most is [Trump’s] disrespect for the American flag and the American veterans.”
The Vietnam veteran famous that the incoming president’s alleged feedback calling fallen troopers “suckers and losers” have been notably “heartbreaking”.
Carl says he used to vote Republican within the Nineteen Eighties, and known as John McCain “an American hero”. But, he could not recognise the get together anymore. He additionally believed the assassination makes an attempt on Trump “have been staged … like WWE”.
Paris sadly packed away his chess set. The son of a ballot employee, he mentioned he at all times tried to influence everybody “voting is sacred” — however he hasn’t been profitable together with his brother.
“No, I do not vote,” the previous marine advised Euronews, his voice barely slurred. “I imagine they are going to put in whoever the hell they need, no matter your vote. In the event that they put a goddamn convicted felon within the goddamn workplace, your vote by no means actually counts.”
At that time, the bar supervisor walked up. “Is that your individual alcohol in that bottle, sir?”
Paris shook his head: “It’s juice”.
She didn’t imagine him. “You’re going to wish to depart the bar now, I am shutting down anyway.”
Packing up the unfinished sport and swaying with the practice, Paris tutted. “What does that say for America?”
“Actually. What does that say for America?”
