‘A Generational Concern’: Ian Bremmer Sounds The Alarm On World No Longer Seeing U.S. Democracy as ‘Stable’
Renowned political scientist Ian Bremmer joined CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday to discuss the continued fallout from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and warned that the deteriorating perception of the U.S. abroad is an international crisis in its own right.
“We’re back talking about the attempt on Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania last night. I want to bring back our CNN presidential historian, Tim Naftali and Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer for some closing thoughts. The Republican convention, the next big thing coming up, what do you think happens there? And who does Trump pick as his vice president? Does this change anything?” Zakaria asked.
“It changes a lot in the sense that Donald Trump is going to appear in Milwaukee like Lazarus, right? I mean, this has already been, a cult, of Trump individually. He has such strong charisma with the MAGA faithful that is going to get far stronger on the back of this. And if he is changing his mind or rethinking it all. And Lord knows I don’t have any intelligence on that. I would say he’s more likely to pick someone who is really aligned with that message. The single person I’ve seen that has most strongly resonated with that since the assassination attempt would be JD Vance,” Bremmer replied.
As the conversation continued, Zakaria asked, “When you talked about this, when we started about the world, how do you think the world is looking at all this? Because I’m always struck by, you know, when I when I talk to people around the world, they always say the U.S. economy is doing amazingly. Your technology companies rule the world. You know, the dollar is the supreme currency, but your political system seems so screwed up and you seem so paralyzed and polarized.”
“Small point and a big point,” Bremmer replied, adding:
Small point is that this election had been Biden’s to lose and he looked likely to. It is now Trump’s to win. And I think that countries around the world now recognize that Trump is the likely next president. Most American allies are deeply discomforted about that, and they’re preparing for it. Most American adversaries see great opportunity in that. But there’s a bigger point. And the bigger point is that the United States no longer has a political system that any country around the world admires. They admire the dollar. They admire the U.S. economy.
They admire U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship. No one admires America’s political system. That is a deep concern, a generational concern for leaders around the world that rely on the United States, where the global order requires a strong and stable U.S. even the Chinese don’t want the Americans falling apart. They need the political system to be stable in the Middle East and Russia, Ukraine, and all of that. This is a very, very worrying time for all the leaders that you and I talked to.
Watch above via CNN.
