The search operation at the home of former US President Donald Trump on Monday (9) was the most daring public move by the US Executive so far in the investigations that investigate possible crimes committed by the Republican. The action comes amid a week of relative respite for the current president, Joe Biden, who lives with a wavering popularity.
Trump complained, but the same FBI from whom he sought loyalty at the beginning of his term has so far not come forward to explain the reasons for the operation. Citing sources in the intelligence sectors, the American press points out that the agents were looking for secret documents that the ex-mandatory may have unduly removed from the White House when he left the government.
Republicans and the pro-Trump media speak of political persecution, but attention was drawn to the show of force by the US Department of Justice, which had already been subpoenaing aides and people close to the former president to investigate his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack. 2021, making room for a possible criminal investigation.
If the confiscation or destruction of presidential documents is confirmed, Trump may, at the limit, face criminal charges and even be banned from holding public office, which would make his project to contest the next elections in 2024 unfeasible.
All this a day after Biden finally unlocked one of his top Senate bills, showing that the Democrat still has some, if shaky, control over his base.
On Sunday (7), the Senate approved a major environmental and tax package after months of negotiations with Democratic senators who had blocked the progress of the project. The approval represented a huge relief for Biden three months before a legislative election that could overturn the president’s narrow majority in Congress.
The package, officially called the Inflation Reduction Law, increases taxes on large companies, injects US$ 370 billion (R$ 1.89 trillion) for sustainable energy programs and significant cuts in pollutant emissions and subsidizes medicines for the elderly population in the country. federal health insurance Medicare.
Until Sunday, this was the biggest headache for Democratic runners in Congress. That’s because two of the party’s senators, Krysten Sinema and above all Joe Manchin, had been expressing public disagreements regarding the volume of spending, citing the inflationary risk.
The agreement with Manchin and Sinema was stitched together in recent days and consolidated on Saturday (6), in a rare session on weekends in the Senate. It took 27 hours to discuss the legislation until the law was put to a vote and passed on Sunday – it still needs to pass the House, where Democrats have more room for manoeuvre, which should happen this week.
Despite the ambitious goals of the project, such as a drastic reduction in pollutant emissions, the biggest bet is in the short term, in the subsidy for medicines by the federal Medicare program. Asked on Monday about a possible positive impact for Democrats in the midterm elections, Biden said “yes, immediately”. “It’s a big thing, it changes people’s lives,” he said.
The project was especially important for carrying out the reform platform that Biden was elected on, with an initial forecast of spending of US$3.15 trillion (R$ 16.1 trillion) on infrastructure, social and environmental programs, which was buried by Congress last year. Although the bill passed in the Senate this Sunday represents only a fraction of that amount, with a total forecast of US$ 430 billion (R$ 2.2 trillion) in reforms, the project has still been seen as proof of the president’s strength.
Senate approval wasn’t even the first good news for Biden on Sunday. That day, he finally came out of the long isolation at the White House after contracting the coronavirus — he confirmed the disease on July 21, tested negative for four days the following week and on July 30 he was diagnosed with Covid-19 again. “I’m feeling great,” before catching a plane to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Biden has also seen with relief the improvement in economic indices, amid tension with the possibility of a recession in the country.
The average price of gasoline, which in mid-June passed US$ 5 (R$ 25.69) a gallon, went back down again and this Monday it was US$ 4.038 (R$ 20.74) at gas stations, even level at the beginning of March, but still far from the pre-Ukrainian War period — each gallon, in the American measure, corresponds to 3.8 liters.
Another data that reassured the Democrat was the release of unemployment data last Friday (5). Analysts had predicted the unemployment rate would rise above the latest 3.6% so far, after big companies reported poor job creation numbers.
But on Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics came up with an even lower figure of 3.5% — unemployment reached 14.7% of the adult population in April 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. On an annual average, the last time the country saw a lower unemployment rate than this was in 1968.
In the last week, Biden still had something to show the American population in the fight against terrorism – albeit more symbolically than effectively. The US government announced that on the 1st it had killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of those responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Of course, there have also been setbacks in recent days, with the most striking being the fact that he was unable to convince House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give up the trip to Taiwan, which significantly increased tensions between China and the United States. .
In any case, the series of good news for the president draws attention due to the contrast with the difficulty he has had so far in approving reforms in Congress and in containing rampant inflation and the drop in GDP, which fell for the second consecutive quarter in the most recent data. recent.
Biden is one of the most unpopular US presidents at this point in his term. According to the opinion poll monitor website FiveThirtyEight, the Democrat has 39.6% approval on Tuesday (9), slightly higher than the 37.5% he registered on July 21, the lowest point so far.
