America is “winning” under Democratic leadership, the incumbent president has claimed
US President Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, August 19, 2024. © Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is wrong to say the US is in decline, the current leader, Joe Biden, told party delegates on Monday.
Biden defended the record of his administration, which his Republican rival accused of turning America into a failing nation, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He attended the event to support the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, who was nominated to run for the presidency after Biden dropped out of the race last month under internal party pressure.
”Think of the message he sends around the world, when he talks about America being a failing nation,” Biden said of Trump’s rhetoric. “He says we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong.”
The president addressed the “very successful people who travel the world” among the audience to name any country “that doesn’t think we’re the leading nation in the world.”
“America’s winning and the world’s better off for it,” Biden said.
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Some countries, including Russia and China, have accused the US of abusing its dominant position to undermine any potential competition and extort “hegemonic rent” from the world. Moscow and Beijing have advocated for a multipolar global system in which Washington would be one of multiple leading players.
Trump has called Biden a weak leader who is not respected by his foreign counterparts and who lacks the competence to be president.
The sentiment that the country is on the wrong track is shared by many voters, as evidenced by opinion polls. According to an aggregated average of recent surveys compiled by RealClear Polling, 64.8% of the people say the country is going in the wrong direction, compared to 25.3% who believe the opposite.
A growing number of economists, investors, and lawmakers share Trump’s grim perception of the state of the nation, raising the alarm over the national debt, poor student achievement, rising economic inequality, loss of national identity, and mistrust of the political system, among other things.
