DONALD TRUMP is piling up scandals and lawsuits, but this does not seem to prevent him from getting re-elected, quite the contrary. He can count on a solid constituency and his rival Joe Biden is definitely not doing well in the polls. These are exciting but dangerous times.

Not hopeless at all

Scandals and lawsuits continue to haunt Trump, but for now, he does not have to go to jail and it is highly doubtful whether he will have to before the presidential election on November 5 2024. And even then, he could still run for president.

Trump, meanwhile, is using the charges against him as a springboard for his re-election. After previous indictments, he could count on an increase in donations to his presidential campaign. In fact, according to the Economist, the Trump trials will be a major asset of his campaign. “They will focus attention on him and his message of fearless challenge in the face of persecution.”

A recent poll shows that he can currently count on 52 per cent of the Republican base. The candidate next in line, Ron DeSantis, has to make do with 17 per cent.

In the duel with Biden, he is by no means without a chance to win. Because of his age, the current president suffers from a serious image problem, but on the socioeconomic front too, Biden is seriously at a disadvantage.

Under Trump, workers’ wages exceeded inflation for the first time in years, while they have fallen in real terms under Biden. Today, the federal minimum wage is still a paltry $7.25 an hour (a teenager is paid double that for babysitting), and for many people, mortgage costs are increasingly out of budget.

Parental leave and sick leave are not guaranteed in the US, and life expectancy has fallen in recent years. It is now below that of China.

This is why barely a third of US citizens approve of Biden’s socioeconomic policies and why only a third of African Americans — a key electoral group for Democrats — say Biden’s policies have helped black people.

For the past 18 months, more citizens thought the country was moving in the wrong direction than did during the same period in the Trump presidency.

Towards an authoritarian regime?

Once elected, Trump may well use his power to get the legal cases against him dropped. There’s even the possibility of him pardoning himself.

In any case, Trump has clear plans to completely bend the political system to his will if he were to win the White House again.

He wants to suspend parts of the constitution and replace officials in the current Civil Service with compliant stooges prepared to carry out his orders.

He wants to take over the judiciary, dismantle independent bodies like the National Labour Relations Board and virtually destroy the power of Congress. In doing so, he mirrors his right-wing counterparts in the political systems of Hungary or Poland.

Indeed, an increasing part of the population — in the US, but also here at home — has the feeling that they are neither represented nor heard by the government. They see their purchasing power decline while large companies and banks are reaping super-profits. People hope for better opportunities for their children, but see that they are getting the opposite.

That is why more and more people are losing confidence in the traditional political class. They view politicians as belonging to a clique that does not stand up for them but is in league with the elite. That is also why they put their hopes in a strong, charismatic leader, who they think will put an end to all that.

It is a mechanism that you see in almost every Western country today — only a thorough reversal in socioeconomic policy can turn this tide.