What does Trump's victorious return mean?

The movement is under way everywhere: the populist wave is here. The people are massively rejecting the elites they are supposed to admire. Illegitimate, corrupt, betraying the values they claim to embody and serve. Gone is the time when the aspiration to join this club was widely shared.
The «treason of the intellectuals» is an ancient theme, but it has reached its climax. To the point of preferring a candidate whose excesses are perfectly well known, whose fascination for the fascist model is clear, or whose supporters stormed (with his green light) the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Why?
The elites are accused of no longer representing a meritocracy (social reproduction, preferential treatment, out of touch with reality, serving a caste) and for having betrayed and perverted all the values with which it was identified, thus undermining their legitimacy. Equality and dignity of human lives, the rule of law, principles contained in the UN Charter, and multilateralism have been discarded. Thus #Biden aura verbally denounced the massacres in #Gaza and also # Lebanon whilst doing whatever it takes to make them happen, without limits. From then on, what reason would a voter attached to these values have to vote for the Democrats?
Suspicions of corruption or allegiance to foreign powers are everywhere, affect almost everyone and no longer act as a deterrent. Trump, suspected of being manipulated by Russia and implicated in an untold number of affairs, wins because his rival is in the same situation, at least in the collective imagination. And she would benefit from «protections», unlike Trump, who is victimised.

The competence criterion has become residual. Authenticity is much more important. Voters expect a personification, an ability to capture the aspirations of the moment and a capacity to act without excessive entanglement in the rules of law or formalism.
Can the democratic system continue to thrive under these conditions? It is doubtful.

Especially since, rejected from within, the democratic model is also downgraded internationally in favour of the system promoted by # BRICS. «Double standards», everywhere and all the time, have become intolerable for peoples. The BRICS have never claimed to embody democracy and give moral lessons to everyone.
Their leaders have the luxury of time, whereas those in democracies are just passing through. The former are Emperors who take care to defend their national interest, sovereignty and power. The latter are spin doctors, men of the moment with no ideological roots who are easily influenced.

In reality, Trump's success is that of a strong yet whimsical and unpredictable leader over a rival who was considered reasonable but structurally weak. A president of the Americans rather than of the American Federal Republic.