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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Half of US residents surveyed from May 2 to 6 by the Financial Times and the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan consider the Biden administration’s investments in aid to Kiev to be excessive. This finding comes as it was revealed that US President Joe Biden is campaigning for votes from those within his own demographic group, which does not suffer from the cost-of-living crisis and therefore uncritically supports endless aid to Ukraine.
Fifty percent of Americans believe their government is spending excessive funds on military and financial aid to Ukraine, according to the poll. Only 11% of respondents believe that the assistance provided to Kiev is not enough, while 26% maintain that Washington invests enough. In addition, 47% of those surveyed consider the spending intended to support Israel excessive, while 11% believe that Washington could provide Israel with more aid.
At the same time, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has intensified its strategy to capture the vote of the elderly population in the US. The organisation of Bingo games and transmission of advertisements in morning programming—popular among older people—are some of the actions taken by the president as part of his re-election campaign.
According to Bloomberg, Biden enjoys a slight advantage among people aged 65 and older over his adversary, former Republican President Donald Trump, an abnormal trend given that older adults tend to support Republican nominees.
“Older voters are a coveted bloc, boasting the highest turnout rate of any age bracket and sizable populations in battleground states. They’re even more important this year, offering Biden the chance to offset losses from younger voters frustrated by his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and other issues,” the outlet reported.
According to Democratic strategist Tom Bonier, older adults who will vote in the upcoming elections closely follow political news, including coverage of the criminal cases against former President Trump.
In previous campaigns, the former Republican president positioned himself better than Biden among this segment of the population. However, the trend has reversed in the surveys, with him one percentage point higher than the current president, according to a survey carried out in April by Bloomberg News and Morning Consult.
A survey from April by Siena College and The New York Times found that Biden has a 51% advantage in this demographic sector, compared to 42% for his rival. However, the outlet highlights that this advantage cannot translate into a victory for Biden in November. In the last elections, the Democrat’s team focused its efforts on trying to obtain the support of this electoral group.
Bloomberg highlighted that Biden’s campaign invested heavily in paid media aimed at older Americans, with advertisements appearing on programs popular with seniors, including popular daytime shows like Good Morning America and game shows such as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
Most importantly, the outlet highlighted that “while Biden has struggled to sell voters broadly on his economic agenda, some data suggests seniors may have rosier views of the economy, making them more receptive to his pitch. Older voters are more likely to own a home and stocks, helping them build wealth and avoid the hurdles younger voters face with high housing prices and mortgage rates.”
Effectively, Biden is pinning his re-election hopes on a segment of the population that does not suffer from the cost-of-living crisis and inability to purchase a house, like the younger generation.
“Trump carried voters 65 and older in his prior campaigns, including by 52% to 47% over Biden in 2020. In a rematch this year pitting the two oldest major-party candidates ever, polls show Biden, 81, with an edge over Trump, 77, among those voters,” Bloomberg reported.
While Biden appeals to those within his demographic, a political action committee backing Donald Trump opened a TikTok account, MAGA Inc., on May 8. This shows how the former president is targeting the US youth, considering that about 75% of TikTok users are aged 18-34. It is precisely this age group that suffers from the cost-of-living crisis, a reality that Biden’s targeted demographic does not experience.
As the cost-of-living crisis deepens and more young Americans can never attain the dream of owning their house, criticism of the billions upon billions sent to Ukraine is mounting and will undoubtedly be a key issue in Americans determining whether they will vote for Biden or Trump. Although polls have Trump ahead, it remains to be seen how the unusual trend of younger people pivoting towards a Republican candidate and the elderly towards the Democrats will impact November’s election.
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this bs of hundreds of billions of tax dollars in ‘military aid’ to neonazis is not only excessive, but also the biggest stupidity in the history of the united states
its decided by the many taxpayers. in usa they vote about in and the wars commity with both democats and repuplikans has to find minimum 51%.
very much as you think those money are taken from which has none. how is that posssible?
usa have open public budgets about i as fx here i denmark and no cigar box mouth to mouth or behinds economy.
thats wy the governess ours sometimes is slow but mainly decide better.
you ignore the wais is given to the 85% in ukraine are not nazis and the nazis are some 2,15% not having a single seat in the well elected prada.
they your many nazis has elected a jew as president. hard time for hitler 🙈
you’re an idiot.
simply a crime.
lindsay grahamcracker says best money he ever spent. only 10 ukrainians dead for every russian and he never even had to break a sweat and buy deodorant.
gaza’s easier though, just one nuke he says is all it’d take. funny how he never talks nukes when it comes to ukraine & russia. punk ass pos are like that. can somebody please save america from itself? it’d be much appreciated.
excessive? the proper term that comes to mind is illegal. fraudulent, maybe. a traitorous congress that funds the defense of the border of the rf (ukraine is in the border of the rf and has been for quite some time) against the people of the rf and ukraine, but will not defend the border of my country is what is fraudulent. let us not bring up the illegal funding of israel either.
potemkin has tricked you again.
its not your country. people share countries and unite them. thats how countries and laws for them are made.
oh my, what do we have here….the philosopher dingbat?
if you mentioned israel, add taiwan to the list. officially it’s china (recognized even by the us), but they are trying to tear this land apart from main part of the country. clear sponsoring of separatism which commonly grows to terrorism and war. if not this “divide and impera” policy, taiwan could reunite with prc long time ago like hk and macao. taipei and beijing have huge trade, the island is the part of many production chains on mainland, taiwan is already working for the rest china.
instead at russia no one have an opinion about the war cause if they had we know how it is, gulag country in the world that kills more jornalists corruption is fucked
supposedly you know nothing about what’s going on in russia ,right?
we know. you dont.
fellow, you don’t know your ass from a hole in your head.
thats right. its the same right here.
fake poll. maybe in dearborn michigan only 47% consider aid to israel excessive but across the country there is overwhelming support for israel. it’s a tenet of faith for evangelicals. and likewise opposition to russian aggression enjoys widespread support. no neville chamberlain compromised coming vlad. you’ll be outspent 100 to 1.
exactly true.
direct result of american ignorance and decades of anti russian propaganda.
perhaps but immigrants to usa from russia and former ssr’s and former warsaw pact countries share this same concern about russian aggression and totalitarian control of people who are subjects, not citizens. subjects are owned by the state; citizens own the state.
bullshit people who left communism to come usa sees this has become worse in many ways, terror regime not a democracy.
ukraine reminds me of an old mississippi riverboat full of card sharks and con artists who rob the passengers and throw them overboard, then throw the crew overboard so they can lighten the load and make a run for it.