Americans are being forced into a repeat of the last presidential election. They do not give US President Biden a good job reference. But do they dislike Donald Trump any less?
Is this really happening? Donald Trump and Joe Biden both secured their party’s candidacy on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. It was no surprise that Biden would receive Democratic support as president, despite his age. Nobody is going to unseat an incumbent who has already won against the presumed opponent. But Trump’s ability to do it again has been doubted since his defeats – a direct one in 2020 and the one in the 2022 congressional elections, which were also blamed on him. Nevertheless, he has the Republicans firmly under control. And he wants revenge.
In November there will be a new edition of the duel from 2020. Trump was one of the few US presidents who was voted out of office after one term in office – for various reasons. Among other things, his handling of the corona pandemic was chaotic, especially at the beginning, and Americans were tired of his constant self-portrayal. They voted for Biden because they knew him after decades in politics and he promised a return to calmer times. He leads with a careful hand. But times are far from calm. Hardly anyone is satisfied.
The surveys have been clear for a long time. Americans don’t want to have to choose between Trump and Biden again. Instead, supporters of both parties would like to see new, primarily younger people at the top. The 81-year-old Biden is now clearly showing his age and the 77-year-old Trump is no longer the youngest either. Biden’s popularity is slowly but surely declining. It is now at a very poor 38 percent. Trump, on the other hand, has made gains in the past six months, with around 43 percent having a positive opinion of him. Perhaps never before have the years and health of candidates been such a big issue in a presidential election.
The ex-president has always been a rather incoherent speaker. It definitely hasn’t gotten any better. It’s not clear whether Trump is simply making promises, casually telling you what comes to mind, or is noticeably mentally deteriorating. For Biden, his age is likely to become an even bigger problem than it already is. At last week’s State of the Union address, which was interpreted by Democrats as a sign of strength, the cheers of their own members of Congress could not disguise the fact that the President almost always made a promise when he used a somewhat more complex sentence with emphasis Wanted to bark towards Republicans.
Ukraine war on the agenda
The likelihood that Trump will unleash one diplomatic shockwave after another for years has now become much more likely. The ex-president boasted about his success in a video message on Wednesday: “This is your favorite president, speaking to you on a great day of victory,” he said, before launching into his typical sing-song tirades. The US is “perceived as a joke” in the world, the country is only going downhill, but he, on the other hand, will close the borders and “drill, baby, drill” because the energy costs are far too high, “even though we have liquid gold among ours “have feet”.
Biden and Trump have little in common in terms of content. From a European perspective, the Ukraine war is probably the most important point of contention between the two designated candidates. Biden wants to continue to support Kiev in its defense fight against Moscow because, like many others, he sees this as the first geopolitical domino that must not fall. Ukraine needs the Western alliance. Without further help from the USA, the war will probably be lost. The defenders are already having to ration their ammunition.
However, Trump’s followers in Congress are blocking new aid. According to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the Republican has a “detailed plan” on how he would end the war. However, he doesn’t want to spend any more money. During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly threatened that as head of state he would encourage the Russians to do “whatever they want” with NATO countries that spend too little on their military. It doesn’t sound like he wants to stop Vladimir Putin. Instead, they use it as a means of pressure against their formal allies.
Lack of consent is not rejection
There are other presidential candidates: the left-wing intellectual Cornel West and Robert Kennedy as independents, Jill Stein for the Greens and Chase Oliver for the Libertarians, but they will not take more than votes away from the two big names. If they hold out until November, they will influence the duel at the ballot box. They can tip the scales, but they have no chance of winning. Instead, the Americans will witness another mudslinging between the rivals that hardly anyone wants to watch. Nevertheless, they and the world are forced to do so.
The president has not implemented everything he promised in his first three years. But Biden and his team have already won against Trump once and are hoping that the economic data will continue to be good and that they can keep their diverse coalition of voters together to some extent. On the female side, for example, rejection of Trump has become even clearer since the conservative Supreme Court overturned general abortion rights. And if the Americans do not decide for Biden, but primarily against Trump, that would be enough for the Democrat. Just like 2020.