Four developments that could leave a bigger mark on history
The rest of the world did not stop for Trump's trial |
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Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping ended negotiations with a tea ceremony in Beijing's Zhongnanhai park on Thursday. |
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A former and possibly future president is on trial in the middle of an election campaign, so it's no wonder that Donald Trump's multi-week courtroom ordeal is dominating news in the United States.
It's too early to accurately assess how voters will react to a conviction or an acquittal of the presumptive GOP nominee in the coming weeks. But the verdict could have massive consequences – particularly if Trump is found guilty and faces a backlash that thwarts his dreams of a presidential return. Still, the intense focus on Trump's trial has overshadowed consequential events elsewhere this week that may also have a profound impact on American security and world history.
Take Russian President Vladimir Putin's trip to China. The visit underscores growing links between America's two great nuclear rivals and a widening joint challenge to the primacy of US and Western global power. Washington is especially concerned about Beijing's role in supplying key components to Russian industry that are helping to rebuild Moscow's forces in Ukraine – even if China says it is not providing lethal arms. The deepening economic clash between Washington and Beijing escalated again this week when Biden imposed $18 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports in sectors deemed vital to US national security. In one striking move, the President slapped 100% duties on Chinese electric vehicles amid US accusations that China is subsidizing the sector to destroy the capacity of its overseas competitors.
As Putin huddles with President Xi Jinping, his best foreign friend, Russian forces are making some of the most significant breakthroughs of the two-year war in Ukraine. Russian troops are on the march near the northeastern city of Kharkiv, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to cancel travel plans. Moscow's forces are also pressing forward elsewhere, raising the question in Washington of whether new US ammunition and arms contained in a much-delayed new $60 billion package will come too late.
Biden also has a massive foreign policy headache in the Middle East. Despite his repeated warnings to Israel to renounce a planned major assault on the Gazan city of Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to go ahead. Israel is rushing more troops to the area where it says Hamas units are holding out in underground hideaways and where a million Palestinians have been sheltering. Biden fears that a large-scale attack could cause huge civilian casualties. And a new round of carnage could cause even greater political problems for Biden back home, with progressives and young voters – two key sectors of his coalition in November – furious he hasn't reined Netanyahu in. And while this week's assassination attempt on Slovakian pro-Putin Prime Minister Robert Fico is not Washington's problem, the increasingly unstable environment in Eastern Europe could soon complicate US foreign policy. Russia and even China — following Xi's visit to Hungary and Serbia this week – are trying to open divides among European powers in a way that could weaken the unity of the west. This comes amid mass protests in Georgia over a new law modeled on measures in Putin's Russia that were used to crack down on the opposition and civil society. In European Union elections next month, far right parties are expected to gain significant ground, further testing the continent's unity against Putin and continued support for Ukraine. Anything that weakens the EU will be seen in Washington as a challenge to the strength of Western societies. At least, that will be the case unless Trump — who often has more in common with America's autocratic adversaries than its democratic allies — returns to power early next year. |
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'What kind of show do you call that?' |
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Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets. |
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Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney can't wait for the first debate between President Joe Biden, 81, and ex-President Donald Trump, 77. He said the first presidential debate – hosted by CNN on June 27 – would be "informative and entertaining, like the two old guys on the Muppets." The two aged presidential candidates in the 2024 race have shouldered their fair share of insults, but Romney was the first to compare them to Statler and Waldorf, the cantankerous old men who heckled the cast on the classic 1970s puppet show. The Utah senator is retiring, so he can pretty much speak his mind. He burned bridges long ago with Trump, whom he considers a threat to democracy. But despite his antipathy for the ex-president, Romney still thinks he'll beat Biden in November. "I read the polls like everybody else. I think Donald Trump is going to win. Obviously, I've been saying all along he's going to be the nominee, and I think he has the substantial edge on the final contest." But Biden thinks he's ahead and that swing state polls showing Trump leading are wrong, and there's every sign this will be neck-and-neck all the way to the election. To paraphrase Kermit the Frog, we could be in for the "most intentional, inspirational, celebrational, muppetational" debates in decades. |
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Thanks for reading. On Friday, Biden speaks at an NAACP event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. On Saturday, Pope Francis delivers remarks at the Basilica of San Zeno.
And on Sunday, the Dominican Republic holds a general election.
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