America decides

Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their state representatives and judges, the entire US House of Representatives, and one-third of the US Senate, but no election is going to be more closely watched than the top-of-the-ballot battle between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. The latest polling suggests Harris has a marginal lead, but the election is still too close to call. The fact that the race remains this tight has befuddled people around the world. But for analysts who have unsuccessfully warned of the influence of foreign and domestic right-wing political influence operations, it makes perfect sense.

Trump's presidency epitomised right-wing populism, and it was the failure of those policies that led to his defeat in 2020. However, pro-Trump propagandists and the fake-news-based social media bubble - like many Whatsapp groups in South Asia - have convinced millions of people that Trump actually won in 2020, that positive economic data from the Biden administration is fake, that Trump is not guilty of any crimes he has been convicted of, and, occasionally, that up is down and left is right. This is also why some Muslims say they will vote for Trump because they think he will be better on Palestine, even though Trump broke with decades of US policy to unilaterally, and, against UN resolutions, declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, increased military aid to Israel, and in Trump's own words, told Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore US President Joe Biden's calls for restraint and "Do what you have to do." While Biden has certainly been weak on Israel and Harris only slightly better, Trump would happily rubber-stamp the annihilation of Palestine for a few words of praise from Netanyahu. And while Harris is expected to continue the Biden Administration's support for Ukraine as it fends off invading Russian forces, Trump allegedly told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, A close ally of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, that he would cut all aid for Ukraine, effectively handing the country to Russia on a silver platter.

On Pakistan, despite fake videos showing Trump's concern for Imran Khan - the doctored video actually sampled Trump talking about his own court cases - neither candidate has made notable references to any policy changes vis-a-vis Pakistan or our domestic issues, which suggests that the status quo will remain.