The passage of time has seemingly sped up by an entire year.
Joe Biden, the incumbent president, is expected to hurry to Michigan on Tuesday to steal headlines from his potential competitor, former president Donald Trump, on the picket lines of an autoworkers conflict. Meanwhile, Trump is trying to harm his successor by spewing violent and harsh rhetoric and attempting to shut down the government.
Never mind that the Republican nomination election doesn’t even begin for another four months. Or that on Wednesday, Trump’s opponents will convene in California for a debate that will be overshadowed by the frontrunner’s address in Detroit, Michigan, as part of his competition with Joe Biden for blue-collar voters in a crucial swing state that both men won on their way to the White House.
A second term of “retribution” under Trump could pose an even greater threat to political institutions and democracy than his turbulent first administration, and the 2024 matchup that polls show most Americans don’t want is suddenly coming to life ahead of an unprecedented campaign. There are growing concerns among Democrats that the hypothetical rematch is a dead heat despite the fact that the incumbent president, who is seeking reelection, will be 82 years old by the time of the next inauguration.
Trump’s campaign has picked up steam and become more aggressive as he has set his eyes on Biden and moved into early voting states to snuff out the aspirations of his distant GOP rivals that they could deprive him of a third straight GOP candidature.
Clearly, the former president sees the current impasse in Washington as an opportunity to injure Biden, as conservative House Republicans are making a mockery of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership and threaten to shut down the government by Saturday. As is characteristic of him, he seems unconcerned about the impact a shutdown would have on innocent federal workers or the economy.
“SHUT IT DOWN UNTIL YOU GET EVERYTHING!” Trump posted on Truth Social late on a Sunday night, adding poison to the already sour tone among Republican legislators.
At first glance, Trump’s backing for a shutdown seems politically illogical, given that Republican leaders have warned that their party almost always suffers when it begins such crises when a Democrat is in the White House.
If public discontent with the GOP continues into next year’s elections, it may cost the party its slim House majority, reducing Trump’s influence even if he were to win back the White House. If Trump is the Republican nominee, widespread distaste for the party’s tactics might hurt his chances at the polls among the moderate voters in swing states who were crucial in making Bush the first one-term president in nearly 30 years.
The former president, though, is ignoring warnings that a shutdown may backfire, saying instead that Biden stands to lose the most from the impasse. In his Sunday night address, he took aim at Republican lawmakers who worry about getting the responsibility for a government shutdown. “Wrong!!!” Trump tweeted. The responsibility will fall on “whoever is President.”
Trump has frequently prioritised his own political interests over the traditional understanding of what is best for his party as a whole. This was clear in the elections of last year, when his stable of candidates tanked in swing areas and contributed to the Republican Party’s loss of the Senate.
The ex-president’s upcoming criminal indictments for two separate offences have fueled a simmering feeling of revenge against federal government institutions, as seen by his social media statements. Campaign code for indictments over his intention to disobey the will of voters in 2020 and his hoarding of confidential materials, he has claimed on social media that a shutdown might defund what he terms the weaponization of justice and electoral involvement.
Trump’s proposal for a shutdown, though, may have darker motivations. Some voters may be swayed by Trump’s promises to restore strongman leadership if it appears that Washington is out of control and a disaster, with Biden’s authority being questioned and chaos raging. Thousands of people might be negatively impacted by a shutdown, including service members, air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, and airport security officers. But the public’s already gloomy mood might be darkened by whatever impact the economy receives from a lengthy closure, which has contributed to Biden’s sinking approval ratings. When a democratic system breaks down and government institutions collapse, populist demagogues like Trump tend to thrive.
When Trump goes on the offensive, Biden immediately switches to a general election strategy.
The Biden campaign sent out another signal on Monday that it is just as prepared to begin the general election as Trump is, following up on Trump’s scheduled trip to Michigan by scheduling the president’s own visit. Responding swiftly to Trump’s “shut it down” demand, it blasted House Republicans for “gleefully letting Donald Trump function as their chief political strategist at the expense of American families.”
Let’s be clear about what’s going on, here: Trump is ordering MAGA House Republicans to either slash funding for food safety, education, law enforcement, housing, and more, or to shut down the government, which “could delay cancer research, force federal law enforcement and troops to work without pay, and kneecap essential services hardworking Americans rely on,” said campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz.
The Biden campaign was likewise in a hurry to finish planning their candidate’s stop in Michigan. Because of the short notice, it was unclear which part of the state the president would visit. Despite Trump’s prior declaration that he would visit union employees, officials have denied any connection between the two trips.
In the 2018 midterm elections, Biden’s plan to demonise the “Make America Great” extremist movement succeeded, preventing the massive “red wave” that Republicans had anticipated. On Thursday, when he delivers an address on democracy in Arizona, the president will undoubtedly return to the topic. Republicans will hold the first hearing in their impeachment inquiry into Biden on the same day as the appearance, but they still haven’t shown any proof that the president benefited from Hunter Biden’s business endeavours while he was vice president.
Democrats see this impeachment investigation as an attempt by Trump and his Republican supporters to use their influence to hurt Biden’s chances in the general election.
The upcoming general election is expected to be contentious and maybe violent.
With the general election campaign kicking into high gear this week, the magnitude of the stakes in November 2024 and the extraordinary campaign that would unfurl if the four-time indicted Trump is the GOP candidate are becoming crystal clear.
On the one hand, disagreements over the United Auto Workers Union’s battle with employers over next generation electric automobiles and America’s place in the world are typical fodder for an election campaign. But there’s another side to the campaign: Trump isn’t hiding the fact that, if re-elected, he’d pose the gravest threat to American democracy yet with his dictatorial tendencies. He has already threatened to go after his political opponents with the help of the Justice Department. If he is found guilty in federal criminal trials, his supporters hope he will pardon himself or appoint a compliant attorney general who will drop the cases.
Recent social media tweets from Trump have been erratic and menacing. He seems to be saying that the extremism that caused him to reject the outcome of a democratic election has only grown more dangerous while he has been holed up at his golf resorts in Florida and New Jersey.
After previously attacking judges and prosecutors in his legal cases, Trump lashed out at the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley. Trump claimed on Truth Social that the general’s actions with China in his last days in office were “so egregious, that, in times gone by, Milley’s punishment would have been death.” A supporter of Trump in Congress, Republican Paul Gosar of Arizona, wrote in a newsletter to his people that Milley “would be hung” for his handling of the mob rioting on January 6, 2021, which were carried out by Trump supporters.
AWN contributor and retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told Jim Acosta that such demagoguery was worrisome. “This proposed violence by any political figure is disgusting, it shows how deeply disturbed both of these individuals are,” he remarked. This incident “just shows how commonplace and not condemned such things have become in our divided country.”
And when taken along with Trump’s manoeuvring in front of a possible government shutdown, it hints to the vituperative frame of mind he would take back into the Oval Office, portending a stressful and even dangerous election season ahead.