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October 14th 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

With just three weeks of campaigning left, Kamala Harris is using a new tactic: suggesting that Donald Trump is “too weak and unstable” to be president. On Sunday she told a crowd in North Carolina that his staff wants “him to hide away”, citing as evidence his refusal to be interviewed on “60 Minutes” (a combative news programme), to agree to a second debate or to release a report on his health. (She has done all three.) At a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Sunday Mr Trump, who is 78, dismissed suggestions that his rambling speaking style is evidence that he is too old. “Who the hell can do this two, three times a day?” he asked the crowd.

Mr Trump told Fox News that he does not expect trouble from his supporters on election day, but warned that there might be some from “the enemy from within”, ie, “radical-left lunatics”. He suggested that “the military” should be deployed against them. The Harris campaign seized on Mr Trump’s comments as further evidence of his dictatorial tendencies, saying he was “a risk Americans cannot afford”.

Mike Johnson rejected calls from legislators on both sides of the aisle to reconvene Congress to respond to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives said that only 2% of the money available for disaster-relief efforts had been spent and that further appropriations “could wait” until Congress reconvenes after elections in November.

“The Apprentice”, a biopic about Mr Trump with the same name as a reality-television show he once starred in, grossed a pathetic $1.6m on its opening weekend. The former president’s lawyers tried to prevent its release but needn’t have worried. The film took in less than a tenth of the amount earned by “Terrifier 3”, a low-budget independent horror film that topped America’s box office.

Correspondent’s dispatch: Trump’s newest existential crisis

Aryn Braun
West Coast correspondent

In all his presidential campaigns Mr Trump has portrayed himself as the only defence against a dire threat to America. In 2016 the threat was a caravan of migrants heading towards the southern border. In 2020 it was the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a police officer. Now it is Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he claims is “terrorising law-abiding citizens” in Aurora, Colorado. They are coming soon to a city near you, he warns.

In Prescott Valley, before a crowd of supporters wearing red MAGA caps and cowboy hats, Mr Trump spoke of Tren de Aragua in apocalyptic terms. “We’re known throughout the world as an occupied country,” he cried.

Tren de Aragua is real, and spreading. But the Republican mayor of Aurora dismissed the former president’s lurid claims about the gang’s effect on the city as “grossly exaggerated”. They “hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety”, the mayor said. To his fans, Mr Trump’s alarmism seems more convincing.

KAL flashback

Every Monday we will republish a cartoon by KAL from the archive. Florida is still reeling from Hurricane Milton. The after-effects of Hurricane Helene, which came before, before are still being felt across the south-east. In 2010 Barack Obama flew to Louisiana after an explosion crippled Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig. Lexington’s take on the politics of disasters, written after that event, is still very relevant.

A view from elsewhere

Whichever party loses in November will “inevitably blame the winning one for having wronged the process”, wrote Nugzar Ruhadze in Georgia Today, a newspaper. But “America will survive, as it always has”. Americans know how to use their country’s “weaknesses and failures” to the “best of their advantage”. “This is simply part of this socio-political culture–turning evil into good.”

Figure of the day

$884bn, the amount that Mr Biden has requested for fiscal year 2025 for the National Defence Authorisation Act, which sets an annual baseline for military expenditures. Read our policy brief on the presidential candidates’ views of defence spending.

We want to hear from you
Which House and Senate races are you watching closely, and what do they say about America’s politics? Please send your views to usib@economist.com. And, of course, we welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

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Play the archive

Dateline: The Economist history quiz

Can you guess when these extracts were published?

Today’s forecast

Kamala Harris may be ahead in national polls. But it’s winning the electoral college, not the popular vote, that counts. Our forecast reckons that she and Donald Trump have nearly equal chances of becoming president.

Daily quiz

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things American. This week our questions are on Pennsylvania, the state that our model thinks is most likely to decide the election.

Monday: Pennsylvania’s state seal features Liberty battling Tyranny and the motto “Both can’t survive”. What animal represents Tyranny?

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 history game.

Heard on CNN

No hunting, cosplay or cringy videos are going to change it. The bed is made.

—Scott Jennings, a commentator and former advisor to George W. Bush, suggests that Democrats are underperforming among men and can do little about 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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