Hello, and welcome to the Guardian’s brand new US election newsletter.
Here’s what you need to know …
1. Trump’s mouth gets him further into debt
Donald Trump already owes $454m as a result of his civil fraud case in New York, and has been ordered to pay $88.3m to E Jean Carroll over a defamation lawsuit. Given Trump struggled to find the money for the former, the last thing he needed was to be fined $9,000 in his New York criminal trial, after he attacked witnesses online. Could the judge give him jail time if he does it again?
2. Biden’s banter bus
“The 2024 election is in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” Joe Biden said at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.” The joke continued Biden’s transition from grownup-in-the-room to Burn King in Chief, with the president and his campaign increasing their mocking attacks on Trump’s golf game, finances and mental aptitude.
Could student protesters turn the 2024 election?
Tensions on university campuses, already high as a wave of pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests sweeps the US, got even higher overnight.
The protests, which have seen students pitch tents or occupy buildings at Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and others, began as an effort to get universities to ditch investments in companies which provide weapons and equipment to the Israeli military.
Ahh, the old “let’s underestimate the largest demographic of legal adults” strat.
Let’s see if it pays off.
I’m confused. Are you saying college students represent the largest demographic of legal adults? Because I don’t think that is correct.
No, 18-22 year olds do. Usually.
Just because an 18-22 year old isn’t enrolled in a college doesn’t mean they won’t go to a campus to protest.
Wait, so you are saying that there are more 18-22 year olds than everybody else aged 23 and older? That also does not sound correct.
There are MANY different sub groups of adults aged 23+. It doesn’t sound at all like they’re lumping 23-year olds with 93-year olds…
I hope that is the case and that I am just confused with how things were worded.
I still don’t know who the “largest demographic of legal adults” is that they referenced, but some mysteries are destined to remain unanswered.
Sadly that strategy does in fact ordinarily pay off because the young people that make up the largest demographic of legal adults notoriously underperforms when it comes to voting.