Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune and a foreign affairs writer for Newsweek.
At the beginning of the year, the odds on president Donald Trump winning re-election this November were 60-40 in his favour. After all, the rule is that the incumbent wins when the U.S. economy is in rock solid shape. Americans react to job growth like bees react to honey: with excitement and appreciation. It was
If there is one thing Donald Trump likes more than patting himself on the back, it’s a convenient scapegoat to shift the public narrative. In what has become a daily ritual, Trump held a coronavirus news conference in the White House Rose Garden yesterday to announce a suspension of U.S. funding to the World Health
With Joe Biden now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, there is one president Americans will be seeing a lot more of in the months ahead—and his name is not Donald Trump. In the three years since he vacated the White House, Barack Obama has largely kept to himself. The former commander in chief is following
He took nearly a month to assess the state of his campaign after a whopping 15-point defeat in the crucial battleground state of Michigan. But after private deliberations with his wife, Jane, and some lobbying from his senior political advisers, Bernie Sanders came to the conclusion that continuing his presidential campaign would likely do more
Donald Trump is that rare specimen in US presidential history whose approval ratings have never reached the 50 per cent mark. Any other incumbent would find that fact downright frightening, a prelude to an inevitable defeat in an election year. Trump, however, had something in his back pocket that any politician could only dream of
Mathematically speaking, Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is as dead as disco. After a streak of victories in big, delegate-rich states on and after Super Tuesday, Joe Biden is leading Sanders by 273 delegates. For Sanders to pull off a political miracle, he would need to win 64.2 per cent of the remaining delegates over the
As tens of millions of Americans remain stuck at home in self-isolation, the country’s politicians are busy sniping at each other over who is at fault for a epidemic that Dr. Anthony Fauci – Trump’s coronavirus expert – predicts could kill up to 200,000 Americans. It’s a story far more interesting and potentially calamitous than the normal
What does a leading U.S. presidential candidate do when a deadly and highly contagious virus is spreading throughout the mainland United States and hogging all of the news coverage? Well, build an in-home studio in your basement, of course. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is confronting a conundrum most candidates who run for
If President Donald Trump at first dismissed coronavirus as a menacing-sounding version of the sniffles, he is certainly taking the virus seriously now. One in ten coronavirus victims are in the United States and it’s clear the fallout from the virus is going to get much worse before it gets better. ‘I want America to
The coronavirus epidemic storming the world is far more frightening than the bank crisis over a decade ago. It not only poses a risk to people’s health, but if left to fester could tank economies and cause unbearable financial strains for millions. But in the United States, the country’s divided congress could – as it has done
Coronavirus is having a disastrous effect on the economy and whether Donald Trump likes it or not, the United States is no exception. While the Dow Jones recovered from its 3,000-point drop on Monday with a 1,000-pound rebound yesterday, it’s not alarmist to say that Americans could be entering into a recession. After initially burying his
The coronavirus is altering American life as we have never seen before. New York City’s restaurants and bars can now only offer take-out and delivery service. Night clubs, movie theatres, and gyms in Los Angeles are closed until further notice. The same orders are being issued by the authorities in Chicago and Washington, DC. The Centers for Disease Control have recommended Americans cancel
Bernie Sanders needs a wing and a prayer to overtake Joe Biden in the delegate count. Last week’s resounding defeat in Michigan, a state that represents the working-class voter Democrats must pick off from Donald Trump if they hope to reclaim the White House in November, was a bad omen for the Sanders campaign and
The United States, and indeed the rest of the world, is going through the worst public health pandemic in living memory. Entire countries are closing their doors to new travellers; shutting themselves down until further notice. The NBA (National Basketball Association) has postponed the rest of the season due to the coronavirus outbreak. America’s health
The great state of Michigan was oh-so-kind to Bernie Sanders four years ago, bringing him back from the dead against a Clinton political machine that looked insurmountable after multiple wins across the south on Super Tuesday. But if Sanders was hoping for Michigan to resurrect his presidential campaign for a second time, the septuagenarian will
Ever since Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden pulled off upset wins in Texas, Massachusetts, and Minnesota on his way to ten state-wide wins, the tables have turned. It is now Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner only a few weeks ago, who needs a victory to breath new life into his campaign. The best, and likely only, shot
It was a long and winding rollercoaster ride for Elizabeth Warren on the presidential campaign trail. And when that ride ended, everybody who planted their feet back on earth was a little nauseous. Warren, the two-term senator from Massachusetts and anti-bank regulator with a work ethic and professor’s aura, reassessed the state of her campaign
Joe Biden desperately needed a win in South Carolina. His poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, and sub-par showing in Nevada, meant that nothing short of a blowout win in the Palmetto State would suffice for the former vice president. He poured his heart and soul into the state, pulling off the ol’ Joe
Bernie Sanders is a phenomenon in much the same way as Donald Trump was a phenomenon in 2016. His supporters worship him. His enemies detest him. And the reporters covering him are unsure what to make of his rise and appeal. Like Trump’s presidential candidacy four years ago, Sanders’ candidacy is riding on the back
In Iowa, Americans had to wait the entire night before a caucus winner was declared. Today in Nevada, the wait was much, much shorter – with barely four per cent of the state’s precincts reporting, Bernie Sanders was announced as the victor. That the result was declared so decisively and so early on, was a
