Meanwhile in America CNN March 7, 2024 Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose The Super Tuesday thunderclap heard around the world Image Trump walks onto the stage at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. ---------- Early in his presidency, Joe Biden used to go around the world declaring “America is back.” What he really meant was that Donald Trump was gone. Now that the ex-president is the presumptive Republican nominee, Biden can’t make that claim any more. Trump, who turned decades of foreign policy upside down in his first term, is now one step from the Oval Office again after his sweep through the Republican nominating race culminating in a dominant showing in Super Tuesday statewide contests. Trump’s last remaining rival Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, formally suspended her campaign Wednesday, bowing to the inevitable reality that most others spotted back in January after she failed to beat the ex-president in New Hampshire, her most favorable state. The rest of the world doesn’t get a vote in US elections, but often gets stuck with the fallout when the world’s most powerful country decides to take a lurching turn in a new direction. So, there is bound to be extreme concern among American allies that they are about to endure another stomach churning ride on Trump’s diplomatic roller coaster. Nations that profit from US confusion and disarray – like China and Russia – have an interest in exploiting the chaos that Trump might cause. If he’s elected, Trump would likely seek to end the war in Ukraine on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms, might pull the US out of NATO, would surely again leave global climate arrangements, might seek to confront Iran and would likely back Benjamin Netanyahu with no reservations – if the Israeli prime minister is still in office by then. The next time Biden encounters fellow world leaders at a big summit, he’s likely to get the following question: You said America is back. But for how long? Sign up for Meanwhile in America The world and America ---------- A Russian missile landed just 500 meters from a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Crew members were killed for the first time in a Houthi attack on a commercial ship near Yemen, US officials say. And the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned that Haiti is "running out of time" as gangs run rampant. Meanwhile in America, the Defense Department is analyzing a possible spy balloon discovered off Alaskan coast. OpenAI published Elon Musk's emails. And a record $12.5 billion in online scams were reported to the FBI last year. “ 'A third-world country' ---------- “We’re a third-world country at our border, we are a third-world country at our elections,” Trump said in Florida as he celebrated his best election night since defeating Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, warned Americans of the consequences of the election to come. “My message to the country is this: Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. “To every Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America: This is our moment. This is our fight. Together, we will win.” A historical aberration Image Haley walks off stage on Wednesday in Daniel Island, South Carolina. ---------- America has never had a presumptive nominee like Trump before. The former president is telling the country exactly what he’d do if he becomes the second former commander in chief – after Grover Cleveland in 1892 – to win a second, non-consecutive term. Simply put, Trump is running on the most extreme platform in modern history. He has called for the termination of the Constitution. He wants the Supreme Court to grant unchecked power to the presidency, which he plans to use in a personal quest for “retribution” against his enemies. He is pledging to gut the civil service in government departments and to fill posts with political operatives. He’s signaled he’d use the Justice Department not as a quasi-independent arbiter of the rule of law but as a personal political enforcement machine. He says undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country and vows mass deportations and detention camps. He’s drawn allusions to 1930s dictators by calling his opponents “vermin.” On Tuesday night, the ex-president who has already incited violence to achieve his ends warned supporters that if he didn’t win in November, “We’re not going to have a country.” It was once fashionable for Trump apologists to chide those who took his threats literally. But after the horror of January 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob he told to “fight like hell” beat up police officers, ransacked the US Capitol and tried to block Biden’s legitimate presidency, his rhetoric could be a harbinger of a second term far more extreme than the first. If he is elected, best defense against the ex-president’s extremism will not be a Republican Party that has genuflected before its strongman and may not be a legal system that’s struggling to hold him to account for his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election before the 2024 edition. It may lie in Trump’s own chaotic leadership style that tends to see him constantly get in his own way. America’s destiny is in the hands of voters. Thanks for reading. On Thursday, US President Biden delivers his State of the Union address. What do you think about the prospect of Trump's return? Send thoughts to meanwhile@cnn.com

 

March 7, 2024       Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose

The Super Tuesday thunderclap heard around the world

Trump walks onto the stage at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.

Early in his presidency, Joe Biden used to go around the world declaring “America is back.” What he really meant was that Donald Trump was gone.   Now that the ex-president is the presumptive Republican nominee, Biden can’t make that claim any more.   Trump, who turned decades of foreign policy upside down in his first term, is now one step from the Oval Office again after his sweep through the Republican nominating race culminating in a dominant showing in Super Tuesday statewide contests.   Trump’s last remaining rival Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, formally suspended her campaign Wednesday, bowing to the inevitable reality that most others spotted back in January after she failed to beat the ex-president in New Hampshire, her most favorable state.   The rest of the world doesn’t get a vote in US elections, but often gets stuck with the fallout when the world’s most powerful country decides to take a lurching turn in a new direction. So, there is bound to be extreme concern among American allies that they are about to endure another stomach churning ride on Trump’s diplomatic roller coaster. Nations that profit from US confusion and disarray – like China and Russia – have an interest in exploiting the chaos that Trump might cause.   If he’s elected, Trump would likely seek to end the war in Ukraine on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms, might pull the US out of NATO, would surely again leave global climate arrangements, might seek to confront Iran and would likely back Benjamin Netanyahu with no reservations – if the Israeli prime minister is still in office by then.   The next time Biden encounters fellow world leaders at a big summit, he’s likely to get the following question: You said America is back. But for how long?

Sign up for Meanwhile in America

The world and America A Russian missile landed just 500 meters from a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.   Crew members were killed for the first time in a Houthi attack on a commercial ship near Yemen, US officials say.   And the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned that Haiti is "running out of time" as gangs run rampant.   Meanwhile in America, the Defense Department is analyzing a possible spy balloon discovered off Alaskan coast.   OpenAI published Elon Musk's emails.   And a record $12.5 billion in online scams were reported to the FBI last year.

'A third-world country' “We’re a third-world country at our border, we are a third-world country at our elections,” Trump said in Florida as he celebrated his best election night since defeating Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016.   President Joe Biden, meanwhile, warned Americans of the consequences of the election to come.   “My message to the country is this: Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedom. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday.   “To every Democrat, Republican, and independent who believes in a free and fair America: This is our moment. This is our fight. Together, we will win.”

A historical aberration

Haley walks off stage on Wednesday in Daniel Island, South Carolina.

America has never had a presumptive nominee like Trump before.   The former president is telling the country exactly what he’d do if he becomes the second former commander in chief – after Grover Cleveland in 1892 – to win a second, non-consecutive term. Simply put, Trump is running on the most extreme platform in modern history. He has called for the termination of the Constitution. He wants the Supreme Court to grant unchecked power to the presidency, which he plans to use in a personal quest for “retribution” against his enemies. He is pledging to gut the civil service in government departments and to fill posts with political operatives. He’s signaled he’d use the Justice Department not as a quasi-independent arbiter of the rule of law but as a personal political enforcement machine.   He says undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country and vows mass deportations and detention camps. He’s drawn allusions to 1930s dictators by calling his opponents “vermin.” On Tuesday night, the ex-president who has already incited violence to achieve his ends warned supporters that if he didn’t win in November, “We’re not going to have a country.”   It was once fashionable for Trump apologists to chide those who took his threats literally. But after the horror of January 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob he told to “fight like hell” beat up police officers, ransacked the US Capitol and tried to block Biden’s legitimate presidency, his rhetoric could be a harbinger of a second term far more extreme than the first.   If he is elected, best defense against the ex-president’s extremism will not be a Republican Party that has genuflected before its strongman and may not be a legal system that’s struggling to hold him to account for his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election before the 2024 edition. It may lie in Trump’s own chaotic leadership style that tends to see him constantly get in his own way. America’s destiny is in the hands of voters.

Thanks for reading.   On Thursday, US President Biden delivers his State of the Union address.

What do you think about the prospect of Trump's return? Send thoughts to meanwhile@cnn.com