’Sign of the times’ as Trump tells Christians they won’t need to vote again if he wins

We are joined by Laura Blumenfeld, who’s a Middle East Analyst at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a former American ambassador who is now President of The Middle East Policy Council.

We began by asking their reaction to Donald Trump’s remarks to Christian voters.

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley: I think that we have heard the usual Donald Trump hyperbole, along the lines of ‘I’ll get it fixed day one’, or ‘It wouldn’t have happened on my watch’. He is prone to these sorts of statements. I think he enjoys the fact that it adds to the excitement and fodder of public discourse of ‘What does he mean?’ And he will dismiss any charges that it means something else, at all. So that’s pretty much it.

Alex Thomson: Laura?

Laura Blumenfeld: I think for him, it’s one of those creepy one liners that got him exactly what he wanted, which is at the top of your news hour. All attention is good attention for Donald Trump. I don’t think he means it. I don’t know if that’s an American wishful thinking, but I think a lot of what he’s doing is just about attention, attention, attention.

Alex Thomson: You may have allayed some nerves here in Europe, but, and I can’t believe I’m about to ask this question, but there are real fears in some quarters this side of the pond that we face dictatorship in Russia, a dictatorship in China, and goodness me, possible dictatorship coming from America. Have we lost the plot here, Laura?

Laura Blumenfeld: That’s why VP Harris is running on very interesting themes of freedom versus chaos. Freedom traditionally has been co-opted, you might say, by the Republican Party, right? They like their rights, their individual freedoms. I think it’s very clever that that’s her theme. Americans like their voting rights and everything else, and so I think that’s a brilliant strategy to push up against that dictatorship impulse in Donald Trump.

Alex Thomson: Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, dictatorship in America? The fact that this is even on anybody’s agenda is extraordinary, is it not?

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley: It is a sign of the times that we’re living in. Of course, we have had four years of President Trump. We certainly see what Project 2025 entails, and it does include turning the federal civil service from a professional civil service to one that is beholden to the administration, to the president of the time. So we know that we could go down a path, and we understand we have to work hard to protect our democracy. We cannot take it for granted, and we see what is happening around the world where leaders to the right…

Alex Thomson: Laura Blumenfeld, let’s get to the Middle East, or at least via the United States. A lot of play is being made about how suddenly Kamala Harris is focusing in on the Palestinians, the appalling civilian costs of this war and saying ‘This is new, this is dramatic’. Is it really much different, though, actually in policy terms from Joe Biden?

Laura Blumenfeld: She’s pushing for the job of commander in chief. And so the first thing she has to do is prove that she can command respect from world leaders. And that’s I think what she did by speaking so clearly and strongly when she stood next to Prime Minister Netanyahu. I mean, the words ‘I will not be silent’ resonated. She’s been the quiet understudy for four years, or almost four years, under President Biden, and now she’s stepping centre stage. So I think it’s really important that she calibrate that voice, not to sort of spook those kind of independents and undecided voters on the right who want to see those American flag burning, pro-Hamas protesters put in their place, which she actually did. And on the other hand, reach out to disaffected liberals who are alienated by President Biden’s policy, which they saw as too much tilted toward the Israelis.

Alex Thomson: But Gina Abercrombie, a hell of a tightrope for Kamala Harris. You’ve got the very powerful Israeli lobby in the States, on the one hand, you’ve got the American Arab vote, on the other. You ain’t going to please both.

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley: Yeah, she does indeed have a tightrope to walk. I think she’s begun it masterfully. In addition to what Laura mentioned from her comments, the simple framing of the meeting with the prime minister, frank and constructive in diplomatic terms. You can be sure there were very hard words exchanged in that meeting, and she would let him know exactly where she stands. It is interesting as well that former President Trump is also making clear that the war needs to wrap up, that a ceasefire is needed. And so the prime minister is going to be facing difficulties one way or the other. Vice President Harris may make a signal with her vice president pick as well.

Alex Thomson: Laura Blumenfeld, final word from you. I guess a lot of people say Trump also wants the war done and dusted, but not for moral reasons or because of the attrition of civilian life. Because it makes it easier for him if he’s in the White House.

Laura Blumenfeld: Yes. For her it’s a moral issue. For him, it’s ‘I don’t want that mess’. Yes, they both want the war to end quickly, for sharply different reasons. It’s all about the ‘how you fight this war’ for Kamala Harris. And for Donald Trump, it’s about ‘win’. He likes people who win decisively. That’s what he’s all about. There’s little pity for victims in the Middle East, and the same could be said for Donald Trump.