‘Daddy, what will happen to us when Trump starts his government?’

Suddenly, as if I had put on another lens, those bus passengers seemed to have another destination, another meaning.

Trump won by promising the largest mass deportation operation in history and that, reinforcing the cruelty of “good men”, he would begin the offensive by attacking workplaces.

It managed to pit different generations of immigrants against each other. It convinced those who had already been in the country for years that it was time to close the door on others, under the threat that the American dream of the first group would never come to fruition.

When power is so distant and inaccessible, the grassroots look at their neighbors as enemies.

More recently, Trump instrumentalized the terrorist attack in New Orleans to justify his campaign slogan against foreigners. Even before the world knew the identity of the perpetrator of the terrible crime, the president-elect took to social media to place the blame on foreigners. Hours later, it would be revealed that the man had been born in Texas and was a veteran of the American army, albeit from a family of foreign origin.

Talking to other foreigners in the US, I noticed that the fear regarding the Trump administration is not just about what his administration will do. But what will it authorize, subliminally, to the collective unconscious of a nation full of hate, divided and armed.