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August 21st 2024

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

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The US in brief

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

DNC watch
Barack and Michelle Obama delivered takedowns of Donald Trump in their speeches at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. Though Mr Obama warned that the election would be a “tight race”, the former president mocked Mr Trump’s use of “childish nicknames [and] crazy conspiracy theories” and his “weird obsession with crowd sizes”. Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, said that “the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs”—a dig at Mr Trump’s earlier claims that immigrants are taking work from black Americans. The couple also praised Kamala Harris. Ms Obama described her as “one of the most qualified people” ever to run for president.

A federal judge in Texas struck down a ban on non-compete clauses, which prohibit employees from leaving a company to join a rival. The Federal Trade Commission, a regulator, issued a rule voiding the clauses in April. In a lawsuit filed by pro-business groups, the judge found that the regulation exceeded the FTC’s authority. The agency is considering whether to appeal.

The share price of Trump Media—the parent company of Truth Social, a social-media site—hit an all-time low for a second consecutive day. In August the firm reported a $16.4m quarterly loss. Its market value was over $9bn in June. On Tuesday it closed at $4.4bn. Mr Trump, who owns about 60% of the firm, will be allowed to sell his holdings from September.

New York’s top court rejected a Republican challenge to a law, passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature in January, allowing all registered voters to cast ballots by mail. The judges ruled that the state’s constitution did not establish an in-person voting requirement. The Trump campaign is now encouraging postal ballots, despite the candidate’s past attacks on them.

The running-mate of Robert Kennedy junior said that the third-party presidential candidate would consider dropping out of the race and endorsing Mr Trump. Nicole Shanahan also speculated that Mr Kennedy would consider a role in Mr Trump’s cabinet. Mr Trump has said that he would “be open to it”. Last week Mr Kennedy reportedly tried to strike a bargain with the Harris campaign whereby he would drop out and endorse her in exchange for the promise of a cabinet position.

Matt Gaetz, a firebrand Republican congressman from Florida, fought off a primary challenge from a candidate backed by Kevin McCarthy. The two have been feuding since Mr Gaetz led a successful campaign to remove Mr McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives last year. At the Republican National Convention Mr Gaetz mocked Mr McCarthy for his supposed irrelevance. Mr McCarthy hit back by alluding to allegations that Mr Gaetz had sex with an underage girl. (Mr Gaetz denies wrongdoing.)

City in the dock by the Bay

Donald Trump may tar politicians from San Francisco as “Marxist monsters”, but they come in many different flavours. The three front-runners in the city’s mayoral election are all playing up their tough-on-crime bona fides, hoping to attract voters exhausted by several years of disorder and the pandemic. Read our story on why Mr Trump’s attacks miss the mark.

A view from elsewhere
The brutal policing of protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 marked “the real end of the Irish machine as the heart of the Democratic Party”, wrote Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times. “It is poignantly apt,” he said, “that this week’s convention will mark the reluctant passing of the last old-style Irish Catholic pol, Joe Biden”.

What our readers think
Don Lundy wrote in to say Ms Harris and Mr Walz ought to clarify what they mean by calling Messrs Trump and Vance “weird”. He offered a few options, including Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the last presidential election was “rigged” and Mr Vance’s willingness to attack Mr Walz’s military-service record without checking it properly. Turning to Republican attacks on Democrats, one surnameless reader, Michael, had trouble getting his head around Mr Vance’s assumption that “cat ladies” must have miserable lives. He thought Mr Vance sounded “more like a miserable person projecting his own dissatisfaction in life onto other happy people”.

We want to hear from you
Readers are sending us lots of thoughtful emails so we’ve decided to publish some. If you have views on what is happening in America drop us a line at usib@economist.com. And, of course, we still welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

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From the archive

A reflection on Barack Obama’s presidency

Barack Obama’s presidency lurched between idealism and acrimony but some of his accomplishments will endure

Today’s forecast

Our forecasting model finds that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have nearly equal chances of winning the election in November.

Daily quiz

Wednesday: In which John Hughes film does the protagonist feign illness to take a tour of Chicago with his mates?

Tuesday: What commonplace thing, still in current use, did Grover Cleveland introduce Americans to at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893?

See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.

If you enjoyed this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s new history game.

Figure of the day

7%, the share of people who voted for Mr Biden in 2020 who told pollsters they would vote for a third-party candidate this time. Now Ms Harris is in charge, that number has has fallen by more than half. Read our story about how independent candidates may now help Democrats more than Republicans.

Seen on X

Let’s end child poverty together. Word.

—In a weird clip posted by Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, Wes Moore, her counterpart from Maryland, talks enthusiastically to a Barbie doll he calls “Little Gretch” and then high-fives it.

Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.

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