During the summer of 2024, American politics have been…interesting. In late May, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsified business records. This created shock and small hope to some that Donald Trump would not be allowed to run for president, but that did not come true.
In the United States, a convicted felon can have their voting rights revoked, therefore not participating in their civic duties, but they are more than welcome to run for presidential candidacy.
In early June, the election ballot seemed to be between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. There was no feasible sign of this changing because both candidates clarified that they would not be stepping down despite both being of advanced age.
Age was a big thing at this point. Donald Trump kept pushing the narrative of “Sleepy Joe” and accentuating Joe Biden’s speech slurs and his seemingly distracted demeanor in videos and speeches. This was only furthered with the presidential debate that took place on June 27.
During the presidential debate, they “debated” about topics such as inflation, abortion, foreign policy and immigration. But the public did not listen to that side of the debate because they were busy keeping up with Trump and Biden’s bullying towards each other. They argued about who had a better swing at golf and who was a sucker and a loser.
Joe Biden also pointed out that the only person who was a convicted felon on the presidential debate stage was Donald Trump. That might have been the only good comeback Biden had that night. Trump then later commented that inflation was killing the Black and Hispanic families of America and that people crossing the border were stealing Black jobs.
The “Black jobs” statement made by Trump did not sit well with many Black voters. Many took to social media to poke fun at and question what Trump meant by Black jobs. This was a question that both Republicans and Democrats agreed to be puzzled on because Black people work many different types of jobs from minimum wage jobs to the Vice President of the U.S. There is no set stereotype for “Black jobs”, so we still do not know what Trump meant by that.
After this debate, Democratic leaders were left wondering if their candidate was going to be fit for another years of presidency. Many Democrats, including figures like Obama and Nancy Pelosi, urged Biden for weeks to step down and name another candidate. The support for Joe Biden did not increase, but Donald Trump’s did.
The support for Trump continued to increase for about two weeks and then skyrocketed on July 13 when he survived an assassination attempt. Multiple shots were fired into the crowd at his rally in Pennsylvania, with a bullet skirting Donald Trump’s ear and injuring multiple rally attendees, killing one. The last assassination attempt on a United States president was Ronald Reagan’s in 1981.
Support for Trump increased as X and TikTok users granted Trump “hood status”, and many Republicans celebrated his life. This then gave birth to rhetoric that the Democrats and the “liberal media” were trying to kill Trump to silence his campaign, therefore sending an assassin.
The next shocker that occurred in the very eventful summer months was Joe Biden stepping down from the presidential race and naming Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, which in a sense stole all of Trump’s thunder.
Donald Trump was mainly gaining popularity with swing voters because Joe Biden was very visibly not equipped to handle another four years. Swing voters are essential to both candidates as they are typically a large portion of “undecided” voters. And with Biden’s constant reassurance that he would not be stepping down, swing voters sided with Donald Trump who survived his assassination attempt.
Introducing Kamala Harris as the new Democratic presidential candidate gave new light to swing voters and Democrats that there could now be a better suited, younger candidate. “Sleepy Joe” no longer existed and Donald Trump was now the old, confused and tired man on stage.
Trump still maintains his popularity with his loyal followers but Kamala Harris now has overwhelming support from women, young voters and people of color, the same demographics Trump fails to appeal to. This is highlighted by
Trump recently questioning Kamala’s name pronunciation, race and Black identity, criticizing her Indian heritage and stating she was just now deciding to identify as Black.
Trump and Harris have been answering each other’s remarks over news outlets or media posts, which is sometimes hilarious but tedious to keep up with.
The age of social media has changed presidential debates, as there are no longer planned out media appearances or posts. Angry X posts and funny TikToks are how our current presidential candidates feud.
Commenting on the unseriousness of our current-day politics would have to be another Allons itself, but it is safe to say this summer has been eventful in the world of American politics.
I encourage everyone to register to vote because it looks like we all need to be informed about just exactly who we are going to put in office for the next 4 years of our lives.