CNN's Manu Raju pointed out that Donald Trump frequently touted low gas prices during his presidency, but when prices rose under Biden, he shifted to attacking the current administration. Raju stated, 'And the person who liked to talk about it a lot was none other than Donald J. Trump.'
The week at the World Economic Forum in Davos has strengthened the ranks of its opponents, with a shift among numerous European leaders including figures from the far right, theoretically close to Trump who have abandoned their usual conciliatory attitudes and are now opting for firm rejection in the face of his abuses and insults. In this way, albeit without formal coordination, they are joining the group of countries that refuse to yield, such as China, India, Canada, and Brazil.
Affordability has been, understandably, the watchword for Democratic candidates over the last year. After downplaying inflation under Joe Biden, the party learned a brutal lesson when Donald Trump rode the cost-of-living crisis back to the White House in 2024. In 2025, Zohran Mamdani put affordability at the center of his own campaign and surged from the back of the pack to City Hall.
In perhaps a vain attempt to prove themselves moderate, the Democratic lawmakers helped override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes. Voters responded with the kind of ballot-box fury that should serve as a lesson to other incumbents. It wasn't just a case that the incumbents lost. They were buried, with several of them getting trounced by margins of 40 points or more.
The first 2028 presidential primaries are just two years away. And for the first time since 2016, both parties are expected to have serious competition for their nominations. While Vice-President J.D. Vance is likely to enter the cycle as a formidable front-runner for the GOP nod, recent history suggests there will be lots of other candidates. After all, Donald Trump drew 12 challengers in 2024.
"It has been baked in that the states are largely in charge of the election process, and that the federal government can set or override rules for that process if they wish, but it's very specific that that has to be done through Congress and not through lone executive action," said Justin Levitt, a constitutional and law of democracy scholar at Loyola Law School who was a non-partisan policy adviser for Democracy and Voting Rights during the Biden White House.
Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter. The Washington Roundtable is joined by Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, for a conversation about the pressures facing American democracy, the security of elections, and how these domestic tensions interact with the collapse of international norms.