Analysis: Donald Trump is in full attack mode as Joe Biden celebrates

On Nov 15, 2021

It often feels like the 45th President never left the stage, given the corrosive and complicated impact of his poisoned legacy on Washington. The traumatic aftermath of his term will take a new twist on Monday when his political guru Steve Bannon is expected to surrender after a federal grand jury indicted him last week for ignoring a subpoena from the House probe into Trump’s coup attempt. In the latest jarring flashback to that terrible day on January 6, Trump defended rioters who chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after his vice president refused to throw the election, in audio of an interview conducted for a new book by Jonathan Karl released by ABC News.

Trump, as he relentlessly solidifies plans for a likely 2024 presidential run, is meanwhile stepping up efforts to increase his dominance over the Republican Party, vowing to oust lawmakers who backed Biden’s bipartisan $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. The current President will hold a high wattage signing ceremony for the measure at the White House on Monday, which will include at least two Republican senators who will show up in defiance of Trump. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, an incessant target of the ex-President, who also voted for the bill, will not, however, take part in Biden’s victory lap. The event will be a reminder that Trump’s own inept attempts to pass such infrastructure reform turned into an object of ridicule.

If ever a President needed a win, it was Biden, who endured a tough summer. As he signs the measure he hopes will offer a jolt of momentum to his presidency, the President will put Mitch Landrieu, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans, in charge of implementing the vast new law. But it is unlikely that a rare bipartisan spending program, necessary to fix US roads, railroads, bridges and airports, will be a magic fix for a presidency in turmoil.

Biden, whose approval rating tumbled to 41% in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll on Sunday, is facing accusations that he is not sufficiently focused on the issues that Americans most care about. A CNN/SSRS poll released last week found that 58% of Americans believed that Biden hadn’t paid attention to the nation’s most important problems. More than a third of respondents thought the economy was the most pressing issue.

An alarming spike in inflation and high gasoline prices are creating the kind of perfect economic storm that everyone in the country feels and that shapes political discontent. While elements of the infrastructure plan and the companion yet-to-pass social spending blueprint are popular, could create jobs and ease the burden on working Americans, they will take many months and years to play out. The high cost of living, brought on mostly by the pandemic and related supply chain issues, is giving Republicans a massive opening now as midterm elections loom in a year. With costs for Thanksgiving turkeys and travel rising because of supply chain backups and high energy prices, legislative wins…