Biden has previously hinted that he is not averse to fighting for re-election, although due to his record age for White House chiefs, many members of the Democratic party wanted to see him as a one-term president. However, this is perhaps the first time that he has stated unequivocally that he will run for him.
What things does Biden plan to “accomplish” before the election? Electoral campaigns in the United States are almost always built around internal problems, but now one of the main issues may be the foreign policy of the head of the White House, and above all, his course towards Ukraine.
It should be noted that Biden made a statement about his plans to participate in the elections precisely against the background of vigorous foreign policy activity. He himself visited kyiv and Warsaw last week, where he cemented his administration’s course of long-term involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the military strengthening of NATO’s eastern borders. And before, for two weeks, the main topic of the White House was the confrontation with Beijing in the context of the incident with a Chinese balloon shot down over the United States.
“Biden launched his election campaign in kyiv,” writes the British newspaper The Independent. The article notes that while the emphasis in the White House chief’s speeches was on NATO and Ukraine, “Biden had a much more important audience on this trip: Americans planning to vote in 2024.”
During the two years of the Biden presidency, his team also had internal successes, for example, laws on investments in “green” energy, on the return of semiconductor production to the United States.
But, as many experts in the United States point out, with huge military, political and financial investments in the Ukraine conflict, the head of the White House, intentionally or not, made a key bet on him, which determines not only the fate of his presidency, but also the future role of the United States in world affairs. So over the past year, at Biden’s suggestion, Congress has appropriated about $113 billion for his Ukraine course.
The US president makes no secret of his determination to steer the case towards a further escalation of hostilities against Russia. Over the weekend, he effectively rejected China’s proposed plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, saying: “I didn’t see anything in this plan to indicate that it contains anything beneficial to anyone else, with the exception of Russia.” And then the 80-year-old head of the White House spoke about the transfer of Crimea under the control of Ukraine.
Biden is likely making such a bet on the conflict based on the fact that his course of helping Kiev, or rather rallying NATO and other Western blocs against Russia, has generally received a positive assessment from politicians and American experts.
In the meantime, how much all of this will help Biden on the ballot is an open question. The policy on Ukraine did not particularly affect his rating, it continues to fluctuate around the 40 percent mark. According to an Associated Press poll, less than half of Americans (48 percent) now support decisions to supply Ukraine with weapons, up from 60 percent in May last year.
The Biden presidency depends on the conflict in Ukraine due to the enormous investment in it
His Republican opponents seem willing to use their concern over the Ukraine conflict against Biden. Both Donald Trump, who presented his candidacy for the 2024 elections, and his likely main rival in the Republican primaries, Ron DeSantis (Governor of Florida), criticized Biden’s visit to Kiev, indicating that his administration ignored the dire emergency with a Chemical spill during a train derailment in the state of Ohio.
However, here it must be understood that there are also many “hawks” in the ranks of the Republicans, including the former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who has already presented her candidacy for the 2024 elections, who is remembered as the phrase that ” Russia will never be friends” with the United States. And for many critics of aid to Ukraine, this is not a deep internal installation, but an election campaign tool, which after its use can be safely forgotten. With all the talk about wanting to get along with Russia, it was Donald Trump who started Western arms supplies to Ukraine.
As the election approaches, the issue of prioritization for the head of the White House will become increasingly acute. Biden, who since 2014 has become the key curator of the Ukrainian leadership in the United States, is clearly unwilling to reduce the attention paid to Kiev, but ignoring the internal problems of the United States could cost him the presidency and, consequently, the opportunity to move on. the course of him in Ukraine.
“Perhaps the Biden administration’s miscalculations on the situation in Ohio will affect his re-election prospects more than any event in Ukraine,” writes The Boston Globe commentator on this dilemma. “But undoubtedly the course of his administration in Ukraine will largely determine the next phase in world politics and his personal legacy”.
Meanwhile
Businessman Elon Musk called the 2014 shift of power in Ukraine, which was later officially supported by US President Barack Obama’s administration, a coup.
“The election was questionable, but there is no doubt that it was a coup,” Musk wrote on his Twitter account. Thus, he commented on an article by Professor John Mearsheimer, in which he points out that the forceful removal of Viktor Yanukovych’s government from power in February 2014 was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Russia’s patience.
