2024-11-18
7 分钟The Economist. Hi, John Priddo here.
I host Checks and Balance, our podcast on US politics.
Welcome to Editors Picks.
Here's an article from the latest edition of The Economist handpicked by our team and read aloud.
I hope you enjoy it.
Donald Trump's politics are so elastic that it is impossible to be certain what he means when he promises,
as he did on election night, to govern by a simple motto, promises made, promises kept.
Will he judge himself a failure
if he does not end the war in Ukraine before he takes office?
Of course not.
Mr Trump broke plenty of promises in his first term,
from bringing back coal to devising cheaper, better national health insurance.
No one expects him to check off all or even most of the to-do list he unspooled across the campaign,
but nor do they know which promises he might keep.
That is why the news media are having to resort to fevered speculation over what a man who has already served a term as President and campaigned as the Republican nominee three times might actually do.
What Mr Trump's supporters believe is not that he will satisfy discrete commitments,
but that he will fulfill an overarching one to act in their interests.
What Mr. Trump's opponents believe is that he will act in his own interests from getting richer to persecuting his enemies.
Regardless of which belief is correct or whether to some degree they both are,
they point to the same correct short-term expectation.