Is Donald Trump's re-election a wake-up call for Europe?

Donald Trump will turbocharge the US economy – and expose Europe's weakness

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
(Image credit: JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images)

It was billed in advance as a nail-biting contest, but, in the end, the result was not even close. Donald Trump won a decisive victory in the US election. That has upset some people. But there seems little doubt his restoration will boost an economy that was already doing very well to start with.

His tax cuts, for example, will be significant, even if there is a risk that they will push up a deficit that is already running at 6% of GDP. The corporate tax cut from the first term will be extended, helping the competitiveness of America’s biggest companies, and some of the battier ideas that found their way into the Democratic manifesto, such as a plan to tax unrealised capital gains, will now be scrapped.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.