Ahmed Atef (Washington, Cairo)
Former US President Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for what he described as their “inflammatory rhetoric” that he confirmed was behind the assassination attempt on him last Sunday in Florida.
The Republican nominee quickly seized the opportunity to capitalize politically on the incident, Bloomberg reported, quoting Trump as saying, “The would-be gunman believed Biden and Harris’ rhetoric and acted on it.” He added, “Their rhetoric got me shot because I’m the one who’s going to save the country.” Trump did not provide evidence for his claims, but his comments underscored how he plans to seize opportunities in the latest dramatic turn in one of the most explosive presidential campaigns in modern history.
Trump faces strong opposition from prominent leaders and politicians within his own party, as former US Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz announced that they will vote for Democrat Kamala Harris, and former Vice President Mike Pence refused to support Trump, in addition to an attack from Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2012.
On the political front, former President George W. Bush has said he will not endorse his party’s nominee this year, and has not said how he or former first lady Laura Bush will vote in the upcoming election. The USA Today newspaper described this as a dramatic shift, as a decade ago it was not expected that prominent leaders of one party would publicly endorse the candidate of the other party, raising questions about the impact of this on the outcome of the presidential race.
American political analyst Triston Witt said that a large part of Trump’s appeal to his supporters lies in the fact that he is not from within the Republican Party but from outside, and that the party is changing and turning to what is called “populist Trumpism.” He explained in a statement to “Al-Ittihad” that Trump’s supporters do not like Mike Pence and George W. Bush because they believe that Pence abandoned Trump, in addition to Bush’s foreign policies.
In the same context, American affairs expert Faisal Al-Shammari points out that Trump relies on the support of the popular base, especially from the middle and working classes, who see him as a savior of the “America First” agenda.
Al-Shammari explained to Al-Ittihad that this movement does not care about the positions of the political elite, but rather considers them part of the past that Trump seeks to overcome. The influence of the Republican elite on Trump’s chances will be very limited, but it may contribute to strengthening the support of his popular base, which does not depend primarily on the support of the internal elite.
For his part, American political analyst Ethan E. Dincer explained that since his political emergence, Trump has always been a divisive figure within the party, which has put him in the crosshairs of “friendly fire,” noting the existence of two divergent currents within the party and the continuation of the divergence since 2020.
Ethan revealed in a statement to Al-Ittihad that there is a side that strongly supports Trump, while the other side doubts whether the Republican Party is isolated from its moderates, as many Republicans, especially in states with a moderate voter base, feel doubtful whether the party is really seeking to change its electoral base.
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