Opinion | Trump was shot, Biden is toast, the world should worry

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

When I woke up this morning, I was shell-shocked by the bombshell news that Trump has been shot. The assassin's bullet failed to neutralize America's curse. Instead, it has all but sealed his electoral victory.

Trump's face might be bloodied, but his defiant fist pump is irresistible to swing voters. Let me make a bold prediction: this bullet may force Biden to chicken out. And if he doesn't, he will be gift-wrapping the presidency to Trump. How do you argue with a bullet that triggers a tidal wave of sympathy?

Biden has been gut-punched by his scrotum-shrinking debate performance. His fighting spirit may be intact, but his mental faculties are not. Two gaffes at the NATO summit have sealed his fate, calling the Ukrainian leader, President Putin, and his own running mate, Vice President Trump. These are not forgivable slips of the tongue; they are unsurvivable verbal flubs. And now, Trump is aided and abetted by an assassin's bullet. The election, already in his pocket, is now unlosable.

Trump never misses a chance to mock his opponent's misery. The rest of the Republican leadership, however, have restrained themselves from gloating over Biden's train crash, They are gleefully watching the democrats go to pieces over a Biden in distress.

America is in uncharted territory. It has never faced a political drama as weird as this. The whole saga has been scripted like a Hollywood tragi-comedy.

How do you process this madness? Even before the assassination attempt, it was crystal clear that America would not forgive you for being old, but it would forgive you for being a criminal. Major donors are deserting Biden in droves, with big donations being frozen, pending a decision on Biden's fate. At 78, Trump himself is no spring chicken, but he is breathing fire and fury, and his occasional stumbles are merely entertaining, not fatal. Side by side, Biden lacks Trump's meanness and animal energy. There is now a stampede of democrats begging Biden to bow out. If he doesn't, it will divide the democratic camp. Already trailing by six points, this division may doom Biden in the November electoral dogfight. Biden swears that except for Almighty God, no one can talk him out of running. To be sure, he still has a few diehard fans, including Whoopi Goldberg, who declares that she will vote for Biden even if he "poops his pants". That sounds more like a curse than an endorsement. Trust me, she will abandon him the moment his pants start to smell.

For the rest, a chorus of leading democrats and deep-pocketed donors are imploring him to bail out with dignity and leave a noble legacy by sparing the country. The democrats are up against the wall. Biden's obvious replacement, Vice President Harris, is a shallow and iffy candidate at best. Her popularity ratings are always underwater, known more for her silly chuckles than her charisma, with an annoying tendency to talk faster than she thinks. Besides, she is black and a woman. In bigoted America, that is two strikes against her. A fail-safe candidate, she is not. In fact, she poses more of a problem than a solution to the democrats' dilemma.

Biden has dared his doubters to challenge him at the upcoming Democratic Convention, and it may come down to that. A nasty showdown will permanently splinter the party. In the days before the Convention, Biden's mental condition is likely to deteriorate. Trump's legal woes, unfortunately, offer Biden no reprieve now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Trump's claim of presidential immunity. America can no longer look to the law to save itself from the twice-impeached would-be-autocrat. This is America in 2024—its checks and balances are gone and gutted. The next six months will be the darkest, weirdest, and utterly nerve-wracking chapter in American history as it descends into chaos and insanity, with greedy betting agency owners laughing all the way to the bank.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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