Trump finally gets it right about the insurrectionists

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Hello from London,

Let me start by recommending the latest Lexington column on American politics. It considers the meaning of Donald Trump’s praise for the “J6 warriors” who stormed the Capitol in 2021. The next presidential inauguration is only seven months away.

Will this be a decisive week in the American election campaign? Our US poll tracker shows Donald Trump and Joe Biden in a dead heat nationally. For Mr Biden that’s nowhere near good enough. Polls routinely underestimate Mr Trump’s strength. More important, in the decisive states for electoral-college votes—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and a few others—Mr Trump has an evident, steady and potentially decisive lead.

That means, as our Lexington columnist also noted, it’s up to Mr Biden to change the script. The fact that only half of Americans think Mr Trump is mentally fit to be president should be an opportunity. The bad news for the Democrats? An even smaller share reckon Mr Biden has the wits for the job. Suggestions that he is “freezing” may be overstated and partisan (read our take on that fuss) but the president must, this week, show he is alert and energetic in the first televised presidential debate. Do that and, just possibly, he can fire up his own side and improve his chances.  

As well as that debate, watch out for big rulings from the Supreme Court. The most striking could be a decision on whether presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts while in office. That’s obviously relevant for Mr Trump, who is already a convicted felon and is facing more trials.

Meanwhile, election campaigns rumble on elsewhere. Yesterday marked eight years since the Brexit referendum in Britain. Quitting the European Union has made Britain poorer and more isolated—and many Britons, rightly, now regret it. (Don’t believe me? Then read this.) But no one in the current election campaign mentions the B-word. Instead Nigel Farage, a hard-right politician who did much to make Brexit happen, has stirred up a fuss by sounding sympathetic to Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. I hardly need to say it, but Mr Farage is entirely wrong to say the West provoked Russia to invade Ukraine. Read our article explaining why.

In France the legislative election is unlikely to bring much happiness to Emmanuel Macron. You can follow the twists and turns with our new French election poll tracker. It seems that Marine Le Pen and the far right probably have most to cheer.

This week we’re testing out a new feature, by launching what I hope will become a regular weekend profile. Look out for it on Sundays. The first considers the woman most likely to be the EU’s next foreign-policy chief: Kaja Kallas, a striking, outspoken and brave politician from Estonia. You can probably guess that I’m a fan. (I’d love your views on the idea of a profile, and especially your suggestions of whom to write about in coming weeks.)

If politics has you down, then let me recommend the latest Dateline game. (Do you remember the year when the Macintosh computer was first released?) In addition, we’ve published some excellent editions of our “Economist reads” series in recent weeks. For the ongoing Euros tournament we have a collection of the most enjoyable books to read on football. And as a part of our recent package on the bright prospects for solar power, we have a special “Economist looks at” edition. This is a selection of the seven best artworks inspired by the Sun. We also trawled through our archives to see what The Economist has thought about solar power in the past. The first mention we can find dates back to 1955—since then we’ve sometimes been prescient, sometimes not.

Talking of the Sun, thank you for the many comments on whether solar power will soon dominate electricity supplies. First, I stand corrected by Anthony, in Wellington, New Zealand, for my heartless talk of the summer solstice and long sunny days—after all, it is deep, dark midwinter on the other side of the planet. Mark Kantor, in America, meanwhile suggests that stability of oil- and gas-producing countries may be threatened if government revenues slump in the coming decades. I agree, Mark, there’s geopolitical risk as various fossil-fuel producers are also rather authoritarian and heavily armed places. Finally, Cesarino Battistel, in Canada, raises a concern about all renewable energy: how to store and transport the electricity generated to use it at night—or on those “cold, cloudy” days that are all too common in Canada? Here the hope, even expectation, is that battery technology and economics are improving fast, too.

For next week, I’d like your opinions on Britain: if The Economist had a vote in the general election on July 4th, which party should we cast it for, and why? Britons and non-Britons alike, you’re most welcome to tell me what you think. It’s the “why” I’m most interested in. We’ll set out our own views soon. Write to me at economisttoday@economist.com.

Adam Roberts, digital editor

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