Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, U.S. December 16, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/FILE PHOTO Acquire Licensing Rights
Published December 18, 2023
Dec 18 (Reuters) – Russia’s Vladimir Putin looks set to remain in power until at least 2030; India’s Narendra Modi seems certain to extend his rule to 2029; and Donald Trump could return to the White House despite charges of subverting U.S. democracy.
For those who worry that authoritarian rulers are firmly in the ascendant over more liberal democrats, there is likely to be much to fret about in 2024.
In all, the governance of more than a quarter of the world’s population will be at stake in elections next year, including Taiwan next month, Russia in March, India by May and the United States in November.
Britain is also likely to elect a new parliament by the end of 2024, though that vote could slip into January 2025.
But no contest could have a bigger impact on the debate over the future of democracy than the U.S. presidential election.
WHY IT MATTERS
Trump, who never conceded defeat in the 2020 U.S. election and falsely claimed the vote was rigged, has vowed retribution on opponents if returned to power, including the Department of Justice, the federal bureaucracy and President Joe Biden.
That has fanned fears that political hostilities in the United States could turn white hot and cause civil unrest.
Trump has a slight lead in opinion polls even as he defends multiple criminal charges against him.
Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13, and the outcome could shape how Chinese President Xi Jinping pursues his goal of taking control of what Beijing considers “sacred” Chinese territory.
China detests the front-running presidential candidate, the Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te, believing him to be a separatist. U.S. military officers have said Xi has ordered the Chinese military to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027.
In Russia, Putin’s re-election as president seems assured after years of cracking down on political opposition. That means Russia’s war on Ukraine also looks set to continue, testing the patience of Kyiv’s main ally, the United States. Trump has been critical of the high level of U.S. military support for Ukraine.
In India, Modi, another self-styled strongman, is sailing towards re-election as prime minister, having nurtured an uncompromising leadership style that plays well to many voters and foreign investors but riles human rights groups.
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SOURCE: www.reuters.com
RELATED: ‘Best-case scenario’ for Trump as rivals refuse to drop out
Lower-polling candidates are giving no indication they plan to step aside before voting begins.
Former President Donald Trump’s opponents aren’t just failing to coalesce around one candidate — they’re actively making it harder to do so. | Reba Saldanha/AP
Published December 17, 2023
DURHAM, New Hampshire — First Donald Trump’s Republican critics banked on one of his opponents catching a spark in Iowa. Then they said New Hampshire was where they’d make their mark.
Eventually, advisers to Trump’s rivals maintained, someone would emerge from the field of lower-polling candidates to get a clear shot at Trump.
After the past week, that idea has never looked more out of reach.
In Iowa, new polling shows Trump not only maintaining his enormous lead in the first caucus state, but expanding on it — stretching his support to 51 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. And in New Hampshire, Republicans desperate for someone other than Trump were further dividing the field.
When the state’s popular Republican governor, Chris Sununu, endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday, he became the third of three early-state governors to endorse a different candidate.
For Haley, it was great news, just as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had publicly backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster had gone in for Trump. But for Republicans yearning to move on from the former president, it was a disaster — capping one of the worst weeks yet in the movement to block Trump from the nomination.
“If you’re Trump, that’s the best-case scenario,” said Phil Taub, a prominent New Hampshire donor and Republican activist who is close with Sununu. “Everybody just wants it to be Trump versus one candidate. But as long as they are splitting up all the votes, Trump doesn’t even have to get 50 percent.”
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SOURCE: www.politico.com
RELATED: Trump notes he was indicted more times than the ‘great’ Al Capone
Donald Trump sits at the defense table at New York Supreme Court, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, Pool)
Published December 17, 2023
Former President Trump on Sunday compared himself to infamous mob boss Al Capone, noting Capone was indicted once but that Trump now faces four criminal indictments.
At a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada Sunday evening, Trump railed against the indictments – two of which were brought at the federal level and two at the state level – calling them “bulls—” and claiming they were politically motivated.
“Did anybody ever hear of the great Alphonse Capone, Al Capone, great, great head of the mafia, right? Mean, Scarface. He had a scar that went from here to here, and he didn’t mind at all. But he was a rough guy,” Trump said to the crowd of his supporters.
“Now, I heard he was indicted once – a couple of people told me a few times more – but I was indicted four times,” Trump added.
Trump underscored how dangerous Capone was – seemingly to make the point that his indictments are unjust.
“If he had dinner with you and if he didn’t like the way you smiled at him at dinner, he would kill you. You’d be dead. By the time you walked out of the nice restaurant, you would be dead,” Trump said of Capone. “He got indicted once. I got indicted four times.”
“Over bulls—, I got indicted,” Trump added.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
