Joseph Biden was speaking at a press conference a couple of weeks ago when suddenly someone on his communications team turned off his microphone. Interrupted mid-sentence, the President of the United States left the stage confused.
But, according to the press in Washington, the main concern of Biden's entourage is not his ease of getting his foot in the door. The main concern is that his leg will fail, that he will fall in front of the television cameras, as has already happened, or that, as happened this week, he will slip off the presidential plane.
Yes, dear readers, yes. This gentleman, whose weight of 80 years is more noticeable every day, is the only thing that separates us from the repetition of the greatest nonsense of the 21st century, that Donald Trump is re-elected president of the United States. The most recent poll, commissioned by ABC News and The Washington Post, gives Trump a ten-point lead over Biden in terms of the chances of winning next year's general election.
The difference between the two is that for Biden, every stumble weakens him; and for Trump, every stumble strengthens him. Biden's age is what raises the most doubts among the voters of his Democratic Party. Trump's insanity is what most dazzles voters in his Republican Party. There are seven other Republican presidential contenders, but adding up the poll results, all together fall short of Trump's numbers.
There was a televised debate between these other Republican candidates this week, a total farce. "The problem faced by those who participated is that Republican voters don't care about their policies," said David Frum, a conservative commentator who once wrote speeches for President George W. Bush. "What they want is a proven track record of violent sedition, sexual assault and financial fraud."
Frum was the one who coined the famous phrase, used by Bush junior in 2002, of "the axis of evil". At that time, four months after the 9/11 attacks, it referred to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Today Russia could be included in the list. If Trump becomes president again, we can join the United States as well. Forget the strong Western unity forged in the Ukraine war. The first thing Trump would do is to restore relations with his soul mate, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as anti-democratic as he is or, in his ideal world, would like to be.
With Trump, sanctions against Russia would be reduced and also the flow of arms to Ukraine. Without its best ally, Ukraine would face two options: lose the war entirely or be forced to hand over a huge part of its territory to Russia. In either case, Putin would declare himself the winner.
The most terrible thing of all is that the best weapon that Putin has in Ukraine is not the weaponry that he possesses or the reserves of soldiers that he has at his disposal. Putin's best weapon in Ukraine is Trump. In other words, the possibility of Trump returning to the White House.
Trump has said, without further explanation, that if he were president he would negotiate a solution to the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. There is another, surely easier way for Trump to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians and Russians. Withdrawing the candidacy for the presidency.
Putin's main bet is that the West will tire of supplying Ukraine with weapons. If the United States gets tired of it, game over. They won't get tired of it if Biden remains in power. Nor will they get tired of it if the most presidential person of the other Republican candidates in the race, the only woman, Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, gets to the White House. But since there's no reason to think Trump shouldn't run, and there's plenty of reason to think he'll win, the Russian bet stands.
So the answer to the million dollar question, when will the most savage war on European soil since World War II end?, is that it won't end until Putin wants it to end and that won't be, at least , until November next year, when the US presidential elections will be held. In other words, every day that the war lasts between now and then, Trump will have almost as much Ukrainian and Russian blood on his hands as Putin himself. If Trump were to announce today that he is dropping out of the presidential race, Putin would have to propose ending his war.
Of course Trump won't quit. His personal ambition is worth more than a million lives. Moreover, what is at stake for Trump is something more basic than ambition: his personal freedom. He has more than 90 criminal charges pending before the courts and the future for him is one of two: the White House or prison. He is accused, among other things, of subverting democracy, endangering high-risk secrets for national security and falsifying his financial data. Without the immunity that would grant him to occupy the presidential throne, there is a serious possibility that he will end his days behind bars.
Two questions remain. First, how is it possible that Trump continues to have a real chance of being re-elected? Because, for him, what doesn't kill, makes fat. The more accusations are poured against him, the more his followers become convinced that he is the victim of a monstrous conspiracy led by Biden and the Democratic Party, the FBI, the justice system and the "Deep State", all instruments of the left or even, as unbelievable as it sounds, of international communism. There are millions of Americans who are convinced that Trump is the best defense there is against Joseph Biden's Marxism.
On the other hand, the worst defense against the real danger that Trump represents for democracy in his country and in the world is Biden himself. Here comes the second question. Why does the old man hesitate to run for president again when there is so much at stake? The answer: because power is a very addictive drug and because, even if he is not crazy, he is, after all, as irresponsible as Trump. It's ugly to say, but as long as they don't change the plan, the best thing for everyone, except for Putin and other tyrants, would be for them both to die.
