Biden’s bid hobbled by war fronts

Washington – Long gone is the Joe Biden of February 2023, strolling confidently through the streets of Kyiv, basking in the role as champion of the Ukrainian cause in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Nearly one year after that triumphant appearance, the US president is instead facing the harsh realities of running for re-election while bogged down in one stagnant war and navigating the volatility of another, as the conflict in Gaza threatens at any moment to ignite the entire Middle East.

In fact, Israel’s war with Hamas has already boiled over into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as Yemen’s Tehran-backed Huthi rebels have attacked ships in the region and other pro-Iranian groups have targeted American troops in Iraq in Syria. Both have sparked retaliatory US strikes.

The United States is not at war, but entanglement in multiple military fronts – plus the ongoing migrant strife along the US-Mexico border – is not an ideal environment for Biden as he ramps up his campaign for re-election in November.

And even worse for the 81-year-old Democrat: his likely Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, has zeroed in on this global instability as an excuse to attack Biden as weak.

For Democratic consultant Melissa DeRosa, “the feeling of instability caused by these conflicts, to say nothing of the border issues, will play a role in this election”.

“I do think it’s going to be a problem for Joe Biden,” she said, and “be something that Trump continues to play up” – especially the migration crisis, which she calls the president’s “Achilles heel” as record numbers of migrants have entered the United States in recent months.

Foreign policy has historically played only small roles in US presidential campaigns and, barring major developments, those fundamentals are unlikely to change in 2024.

But Trump, well on his way to sewing up the Republican nomination, is spinning this anxiety around global uncertainty to his advantage.

“Foreign entities respect [Trump] more and fear him more than the present occupant of the White House,” said New Hampshire Trump voter and architect Tony Ferrantello. –