The number of registered American voters willing to vote for former US president Donald Trump is higher than the number of those planning to vote for current US president Joe Biden, according to a survey released on March 2. This is unsurprising since Biden has been the harbinger of failed foreign and domestic policy and is evidently experiencing cognitive decline.
According to The New York Times and the Siena College research organisation, who conducted the survey between February 25 and 28, if the US election were held at this moment, 48% of American voters would vote for Trump, while 43% would vote for Biden.
The survey also revealed Americans’ preferences based on their ethnicity. About 53% of white voters, 46% of Hispanic citizens, but only 23% of African Americans were willing to vote for Trump. On the other hand, Biden received 66% of the black vote but trails his rival in all other groups, receiving 40% support from potential white and Hispanic voters.
Furthermore, when respondents were asked who they thought would win the 2024 presidential election, 48% of voters chose Trump, and only 39% chose Biden.
The next US presidential election will be held in November 2024. Donald Trump is the likely Republican Party candidate, and current President Joe Biden has also declared his intention to be re-elected by the Democratic Party.
The rise of Trump, especially as the election approaches, is unsurprising since Biden is very evidently experiencing a cognitive decline. In his latest gaff on March 1, the US president mistakenly mentioned Ukraine a few times when talking about American plans to drop aerial aid into the Gaza Strip.
While speaking alongside Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Biden said, “In the coming days, we are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies in Ukraine.”
He added that the US would “seek to continue to open up other avenues in Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance. In addition to expanding deliveries by land, we are going to insist Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need.”
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby later clarified that the president was referring to Gaza, not Ukraine.
Although some might like to sweep this under the rug as a simple mistake, the slip-up is not Biden’s first, and it joins a long series of other similar incidents that are becoming more common.
It is recalled that last month, Biden gave a speech defending his memory after being examined by his doctor, but later mistook Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for Mexico’s leader and became upset after reporters questioned whether his memory had worsened with age.
He has previously confused French President Emmanuel Macron with Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996, while recounting a G7 meeting in Cornwall in June 2021. Then, in New York a few days later, he claimed to have discussed the 2021 Capitol riot with German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who passed away in 2017, when he was thinking of Angela Merkel.
Due to Biden’s evident cognitive decline, it is little wonder that Trump is surging in the polls. Trump has emphasised that he will quickly make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict with Ukraine. Whether he can achieve this or not will be seen if he is elected, but it does point to him wanting to end the war, unlike Biden.
It is difficult for Biden to convince Americans why Ukraine is important for their interests when he confuses the country for Gaza. This is in addition to an infamous slip-up when speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in June 2023 when he confused the war in Ukraine with the Iraq war, which ended in 2011.
With victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the US Virgin Islands, South Carolina and now Michigan and Missouri, Trump is by far the favourite in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, with Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the nomination, holding on only thanks to support from donors who do not want a return of the former president. And as the polls have been indicating for several months, which would be alarming for the Democrats, it appears that it is likely Trump will be the next US president, with Biden’s cognitive decline playing a huge part in this outcome.
