Leaders | America’s presidential election

Where would Donald Trump and J.D. Vance take America?

The anti-globalist MAGA enthusiast is more consequential than the average veep pick

The Republican National Convention Kicks off in Milwaukee
image: Picture Alliance

America has passed through one of Lenin’s weeks in which decades happen. Had Thomas Matthew Crooks fired an inch to the right, had Donald Trump not turned his head, he would now be dead. Fortunately, Mr Trump was not seriously hurt. And fortune blessed him in other ways, too. In Florida a judge dismissed the strongest case against him, and his enfeebled opponent, Joe Biden, remains in the race, though more Democrats are urging him to drop out. At the Republican convention in Milwaukee this week Mr Trump’s presence was greeted as a sign of divine providence. Delegates sported baseball caps with “45/47” on them. That used to be an aspiration; today it looks like a prediction.

The Economist today

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