Don’t write off Donald Trump’s parting words as US president that he “will be back in some form” . They are – unlike his tweets and outbursts over the past four years – true. What he brought to Washington is here to stay: the voice of the disgruntled, disenfranchised and angry. And that’s why his vow to “always fight for you” is telling. That “you” has a new face: it is the painted face of a shirtless man wearing horns, a bearskin headdress and tan trousers, while armed with a long spear wrapped in the American flag, and howling. It is the face of Jacob Anthony Chansley, a Trump supporter and self-proclaimed “QAnon Shaman” who has been charged in connection with his role in the storming of the US Capitol . If reports are to be believed, Chansley has lived a life out of a really bad Hollywood movie. The 33-year-old Arizona man was kicked out of the navy after two years, tried acting, and now lives with his mother. He is unemployed, and a prominent follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. America’s disenchantment and anger has been decades and generations in the making. These are the people whose stories Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild spent five years collecting, understanding and finally telling in Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right , published in 2016. Ever since Trump’s election, people have been trying to understand how it happened, and are still trying to come to terms with it. The four tumultuous years that Trump was in office, and the almost daily assaults on common sense and decency, fuelled the passion of those who so desperately need alternative narratives to explain all their discontent, and support their disbelief and distrust of science and government. All of that combined into radicalisation and finally led to the siege of Capitol Hill. The White House may have a new occupant but the grievances of the man in the bearskin headdress are still raging, because there are legitimate reasons behind the seemingly outlandish words, actions and beliefs of the horde he represents. Intergenerational poverty. Stagnant wages. Loss of opportunities because of globalisation or technology. Being shut out of the American dream. And this is a dream they feel entitled to, but which has become elusive, apparently because, as they tell Hochschild, women, immigrants and racial minorities have been jumping the queue. Wall Street has had enough of Trump but Biden must tread carefully However wrong-headed it is to blame others, however ugly the misogyny, racism and xenophobia, the undercurrents of frustration and sources of grievance remain legitimate. And these are the powerful feelings Trump has stoked and exploited since running for president. Harvard professor Michael Sandel sees this anger and resentment as a revolt against “the tyranny of merit” (which also happens to be the title of his book), an uprising against the elite who seem to look down on those who are less fortunate and have fewer credentials. And it is the elite’s disdain for the struggling working class that has stoked populism and extreme polarisation. But, in this regard, America isn’t quite so exceptional. Its people are not the only ones feeling the pain of stalled social mobility and deeply entrenched inequality, and a deep distrust of government and fellow citizens. And the rest of the world – especially Asia and Hong Kong – needs to pay attention. The howling man may take on a different persona and wear a different hat in a different cultural context, but all the signs are there. A recent study by a team from Chinese University, Hong Kong University and Baptist University found that 87 per cent of students have no confidence in Hong Kong’s government. What researchers rightly found most worrying of all is young people’s lack of trust in people in general. Professor Terry Lum Yat-sang, the head of HKU’s Department of Social Work and Social Administration, called the young people’s grievances a “powder keg waiting to go off”. He is right in sounding the alarm. Grievances and expectations need to be addressed, not swept under the carpet or, worse, dismissed. And that is true everywhere, not just in the US. So watch out world. Trump is out of the White House, but the anger he so deftly tapped into is still out there. Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA