Biden Or Trump? Choice Is Between Two Disasters, But World Can Do Nothing About It

One does not have to be an admirer of Uncle Sam and his policies to wish either Joe Biden or Donald Trump on him as the next possible president.

As things stand, with both Trump and Biden announcing their intentions to run for the top job in 2024, this is the unfortunate likelihood, unless the Republicans manage to somehow dump Trump.

But, as of now, Trump’s base within the Republican party is holding, even though most others are worried that he could damage the party by running again for president.

The choice before Americans, if it is finally going to be Biden Versus Trump in 2024, is between bad and worse. Who is bad and who is worse is for Americans to decide, but it should be clear to any relatively neutral observer that neither deserves to be president. 

Current polls suggest that Biden is more likely to win the presidency if Trump were to be his opponent, but that is only because voter polarisation may be stronger against Trump than Biden.

Moreover, the Deep State, and the liberal media, will ensure that Trump does not win by repeatedly showing only the negatives against him.

The case against Biden is simple: he is not only too old to be President (he will be well past 82 by the time of his next inauguration in January 2025), he has also shown by his actions that he is more dangerous to the world and the USA because of his war-mongering.

He has presided over the USA’s highest inflation rate in four decades by reckless fiscal spending and has destroyed the world’s faith in the US dollar by using limitless financial sanctions against a military superpower (Russia) after the latter invaded Ukraine in February last year.

The US could have stopped the war if it had chosen to engage with Russia to address its concerns over the expansion of NATO eastwards, but it chose not to do so. 

The US could also have avoided a global financial shock if it had kept fiscal imprudence under check, thus lowering the risks of higher interest rates and inflation. But it did the exact opposite, and one result is the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse, some of which could not manage the duration risks in holding lower interest treasury bonds.

The world has taken its cue and is moving away from dollar reserves. Russia, China and India are now investing more in gold. Brazil and South Africa are also talking of moving away from the dollar standard and exploring the possibility of a different global reserve currency.

These trends can be directly traced to Biden’s policies. As Ruchir Sharma wrote in The Times of India this month: “And why are emerging nations rebelling now, when global trade has been based on the dollar since the end of World War II? Because the US and its allies have increasingly turned to financial sanctions as a weapon. Astonishingly, 30 percent of all countries now face sanctions from the US, the EU, Japan and the UK — up from 10 percent in the early 1990s. Until recently, most of the targets were small. Then the big, developed countries launched an all-out sanctions attack on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, cutting off Russian banks from the dollar-based global payment system. Suddenly, it was clear that any developing nation could be a target.”

Even the Financial Times agrees that the dollar’s hegemony will fade over time. Another report confirms that central banks are leading the revolt against the dollar.

Then there is Biden’s growing signs of dementia — which the liberal media is keen to downplay. The New York Times recently noted that age is only a number, and a Los Angeles Times writer claimed that Biden is “eternally underestimated”.

Biden will be over 82 if re-elected, the oldest ever, when the country needs more agile leadership with all his or her marbles intact. But the liberal media will shield Biden from any adverse coverage, as it did in 2020, when the NYT went overboard to rubbish the New York Post’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s dubious connections, calling it “Russian disinformation”. Now it is acknowledging the same in order to shield Joe Biden’s own prospects in 2024. 

As for Trump, the less said the better. The man is incorrigible and unpredictable, and not a good choice for president even given some of his strong suits. (Read a personality assessment of Trump here).

At one point, China was more worried about Trump than Biden, but as Biden now formally recognises China as the real threat to the US’s hegemony, it is turning the screws on Dragon country. Clearly, the China threat was first recognised by Trump, but under Biden it is becoming a stronger reality.

For the Republicans, the best bet against Biden would be another leader who can unite the party, both those who are pro-Trump and those who are against. But Ron DeSantis, the Florida Governor who seemed the best candidate to take on Biden, is losing steam.

Unless the Republican primaries unexpectedly throw up a new leader who can then also retain Trump voters, the situation is bleak for the party in 2024.

For India, the Republican party would probably be less troublesome than a constantly virtue-signalling and finger-wagging Democratic party, but as of now that seems unlikely.

For the world, the choice is between two old fogies neither of whom promises a better world. Biden is a disaster that has already happened, and Trump is a disaster waiting to return. Great choice that!