Yes, you read it right! After the failed assassination attempt on his life, Donald Trump has chosen 39 year old MAGA Republican JD Vance as his Presidential running mate. Vance is an ardent proponent of MAGA’s Project 2025, which opponents say is the white Christian Nationalist view of the America, Trump and his supporters want to see if he’s re-elected.
Project 2025 was created by the Heritage Foundation think-tank and runs to nearly 900 pages. Led by former Trump administration officials, it calls for the sacking of thousands of civil servants, expanding the power of the President, dismantling the Department of Education, sweeping tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthy, a ban on pornography, halting sales of the abortion pill, and much much more.
Vance provoked fury after claiming the UK under Labour will become the first Islamic Nation with nuclear weapons capabilities. His inflammatory remarks on reproductive healthcare rights, mass immigrant deportations and other extreme views have brought into sharp focus the fear of another Trump Presidency. The sentiments of fear are not only shared by moderate Americans, but across several countries the world over too.
Trump blames “America’s decline” on what he perceives as a Democratic open border policy, which he claims has led to countries from the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Venezuela emptying their prisons and sending the inmates to invade the US via the Mexico border. After a bi-partisan deal on US border controls was agreed in Congress, Trump attempted to scupper it by calling the deal a terrible policy which didn’t go anywhere near far enough.
Trump was accused by opponents of deliberately trying to derail the border deal, so he could use the issue of immigration on the campaign trail. More worryingly, the border deal was linked with military funding for Ukraine, which Trump also vehemently opposes. It took a visit from former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron for Trump to shift on both issues, to the relief of many.
Regardless of who wins the US General Election in November, Labour will have to work with the winner to maintain the “Special Relationship” between both countries. However, with the recent comments from JD Vance, it remains to be seen how Sir Keir Starmer will proceed if Trump and MAGA regain power in both houses of Congress and the White House.
Labour are historically affiliated with the US Democrats which many see as a potential barrier, but in Sir Keir Starmer, the UK has a wiley political operator who will be making provisions for whomever wins the US Elections, regardless of their political colours.
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