All the issues Trump and Biden must overcome before November election rematch
It's basically official — the 2024 US presidential election is going to be a rematch between Democrat and current President Joe Biden and Republican and former President Donald Trump.
It's slated to be the first presidential rematch in nearly 70 years — the last one having been in 1956 when incumbent Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower bested Democrat Adlai Stevenson for the second time in four years.
But many Americans are unhappy with the looming November vote, which will determine which of the two will sit in the Oval Office until 2028. Both presidents are old, with Biden aged 81 and Trump being 77, and they both have policies and backgrounds that many Americans aren't too fond of.
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With the election fast approaching, both candidates will need to overcome a host of issues facing them as they hope to win back the favour of the Americans that put them into office in the first place. Here are some of the biggest issues each faces as they try for reelection.
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Ageing and mental fitness
Both Biden and Trump are old — in fact, Biden is currently the oldest sitting president in American history, and Trump is only about four years younger. One of the most common side effects of ageing is mental deterioration.
Some Americans believe both candidates have some form of dementia that would render them unfit for office. Both have been known to make egregious gaffes during speeches and events that have voters concerned.
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Biden often mixes up titles for people and slurs his words when he speaks, leading some to believe he's unfit for office (Anadolu via Getty Images)Trump, for example, often mixes up names and attributions and is known to mispronounce words. He has repeatedly called the militant group that invaded Israel on Oct. 7 "hummus" and not Hamas, and he has mixed up the city and region of many of his campaign speeches, having to be corrected by local officials.
In one particularly heinous gaffe in September, on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Trump referenced 7-Eleven, the convenience store, when he was talking about the attacks.
Biden, however, isn't any better, making many of the same mistakes, mixing up names and attributions for things and even getting which office he's running for incorrect. He had served as a senator for many years, and in Pennsylvania just last week, he told his followers to send him to Congress — as opposed to the White House, where he's trying to secure a second term.
Trump makes similar mistakes to Biden and has been known to get names and places wrong (AFP via Getty Images)He also flubbed and stated that his administration raised the national debt more than Trump did — a statement that's not only factually inaccurate but that also doesn't look good for the incumbent. Both presidents raised the national debt by several trillion, but Trump increased it by a few trillion dollars more than Biden has, according to Investopedia.
A petition recently circulated asking medical professionals and mental health workers to certify that Trump has dementia. Calls for a similar petition or an official diagnosis from doctors about Biden have also occurred.
Trump's comment about NATO and Russia
In February, Trump made a nasty comment about NATO allies, stating that any who are delinquent on their payments to the organisation would not be defended by the US should Russia attack.
The former president even went so far as to say he "would encourage" the country to attack NATO allies who haven't paid up. In a fiery speech in mid-February, Trump stated: "You didn't pay? You're delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills."
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Trump made a nasty comment about NATO countries who are delinquent on their payments, stating that Russia should 'do whatever the hell it wants' to them and that the US wouldn't protect them (TASS via Getty Images)That comment drew sharp backlash from the leaders of many European member states and from politicians in the US. His former communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin, even stated that what Trump had said was "music to Putin's ears."
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, hoping to annex the entire country after it annexed Crimea in the south in 2014. Since then, NATO allies pledged to spend 2% of their GDP for defence, but some countries haven't been keeping up with the payments.
Nevertheless, experts believe it's integral for the bloc to remain strong in appearance, and Trump's comments aren't helping with that. Those who support sending aid to Ukraine to aid it in its fight view Trump's comment as yet another reason not to vote for the businessman in November.
Trump's 'dictator for a day' comment
Trump is seen by many voters to be authoritarian — a dictator, of sorts, that would set the very fabric of American democracy back perhaps further than it has ever been.
A comment he made on Fox News in December, in which he vowed to be a dictator for a day, doesn't exactly reassure the American people and his voter base that he isn't the power-hungry, corrupt politician his four years in office painted him out to be.
Trump said he would be dictator for a day if elected again and that he would shut down the border and 'drill, drill, drill' (AFP via Getty Images)Sean Hannity, a Fox News host and Trump's friend, gave Trump a chance to assure constituents that he wouldn't abuse his power or seek retribution for anything that happened to him over the past several years, including his loss of the 2020 election.
Instead, he said he wouldn't be a dictator "except for day one," when he would "close the border" and "drill, drill, drill." Of Hannity, Trump stated: "We love this guy. He says, 'You're not going to be a dictator, are you?' I said, 'No, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border, and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator.'"
Trump received flak for his handling of the border crisis during his time in office, specifically the operation of border detention facilities where children were separated from their parents (The Washington Post via Getty Images)The former president was harshly criticised by many for his border and immigration policies, including when he implemented a Muslim ban and when he closed the southern border. Immigrants were seen in detention facilities in which children were separated from their parents and horrific abuses allegedly occurred, according to the nonprofit Human Rights Watch.
Trump's legal woes
As if the businessman's policies weren't atrocious enough for American voters, Trump also faces 91 felony counts across four criminal indictments — some of which have since been dropped as recently as Wednesday this week. He also faces or has faced several civil suits over the past few years, compounded from his time in office from 2017 to 2021, during which he was immune from prosecution, delaying the cases.
The four criminal suits Trump faces include: allegations of hush money payments covered up illegally through burial in the Trump Organization's finances; counts related to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 election to Biden; accusations that he illicitly schemed to overturn the results of the same election in Georgia; and allegations that he mishandled classified documents by stashing them at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, even placing some in the shower.
Trump faces four criminal indictments and 91 felony counts as well as other civil cases ahead of the November election (AFP via Getty Images)Some of the charges in the Georgia indictment were dropped on Wednesday, and just last week, he attempted to delay the hush money trial, which is slated to begin in just a couple of weeks on March 25.
He also was recently ordered to pay as much as $454 million (£354.5 million) after a Manhattan judge ruled against him in the civil fraud trial he faced, in which New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the businessman and his Trump Organization of grossly inflating the former president's net worth to gain access to better loans and business deals.
Trump was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages after he lost the defamation suit she filed against him (Getty Images)Just before that, he was ordered to pay writer and columnist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million (£65 million) after he lost the defamation suit she filed against him — one of two he lost against her in recent years after he was convicted in May 2023 of sexually abusing her, which is where the defamation suit came into play as he attacked her and called her a liar back in 2019 as the suit was brought up and he was still in office.
He ultimately has had to pay nearly $550 million (£429.4 million) over the past two months alone, even as he works to appeal both verdicts. But he's running out of time and money as he works to finance his campaign for reelection in November.
Biden's stance on war in Gaza
Biden has faced backlash over his policies related to the war ravaging the Gaza Strip, with many of his voter base angry with the way he has seemingly dismissed — at least up until recently — the bombardment of Palestine which Gaza officials claim has caused the deaths of more than 30,000 people, mainly women and children.
Hamas militants invaded Israel and slaughtered 1,200 innocent people on Oct. 7, 2023, in what is described as the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. After that, Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas once and for all in retaliation, and it has since launched an all-out invasion in the Gaza Strip to accomplish that missive.
Protests have erupted nationwide demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and freedom for the Palestinian people (Getty Images)But the invasion has been costly — financially and in terms of human lives. The Israeli Defense Forces have been accused of largely disregarding the safety of Palestinian civilians as well as bombing areas designated safe zones, where refugees thought they would be safe. The IDF has denied several claims and says it is targeting Hamas militants.
The justification the IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given is that Hamas is tricky and often hides among the civilian population or in the organisation's extensive network of tunnels under the tiny strip's packed cities. It took Biden months before he finally mentioned the civilian deaths, which now number above 31,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.
The destruction of Gaza is proving a difficult issue for Biden domestically (AFP via Getty Images)Biden has said in speeches, including his recent State of the Union address, that he has been pressuring Netanyahu to reduce the number of civilian casualties drastically, but many voters, specifically those who are Arab or Muslim and who live in swing states like Michigan, don't believe that's enough. They want a ceasefire, and they don't want the US supporting Israel, which they believe encroached on Palestinian territory over 70 years ago and colonised the region.
The Biden Administration and Congress have sent aid to Israel in recent bills, which some voters are also unhappy with. But ultimately, time will tell whether the issue will prove to be a breaking point in Biden's campaign and whether or not it could tip the scales in favour of Trump, whose policies on the matter are likely to be much harsher than the current president's.
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