Is Donald Trump America’s Marine Le Pen?

‘Democracy,’ said H.L. Mencken, ‘is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.’ As we approach 2024, America seems to be proving his point. On Tuesday, a highly unpopular octogenarian President announced that he would be running for re-election next year. Most of Joe Biden’s supporters don’t want him to run and a vast majority of young Democrats would prefer someone younger stood in his place. But everybody knows the reason Biden is staggering on. It’s because his Republican opponent in 2024 will in all likelihood be the man he beat in 2020: Donald J. Trump, arguably the most divisive leader in American history. 

Even if Trump doesn’t win the Republican nomination, Biden’s advisers seem to be betting the White House that Trumpism, the movement which now dominates the Republican party, will still be sufficiently off-putting to the electorate to guarantee their man another four years in power – assuming Mother Nature and Father Time don’t have other plans.