Welcome to the online version of From the Political Bureauan evening newsletter featuring the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander recaps President Joe Biden’s big foreign policy push ahead of the first debate. In addition, political editor-in-chief Amanda Terkel delves into the often emotional fundraising appeals from Donald Trump’s campaign.
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Foreign policy dominates Biden’s agenda ahead of the first debate
By Peter Alexander
We are now two weeks away from the first presidential debate of the general election, and we are also just days away from the guilty verdicts against Donald Trump and Hunter Biden.
But if there have been any issues that have dominated President Joe Biden’s time and schedule during this crucial stretch, it is foreign affairs and international relations.
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Last week, Biden traveled to France for a state visit and the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
And while part of that trip had a fixated eye on America’s domestic audience — especially Biden’s speech on democracy and freedom — so much else focused on foreign affairs.
What struck me most while covering that trip for NBC News — of course, after what might be the last formal gathering of D-Day veterans — were the public discussions about who will lead the U.S. in less than a year . Even on the hallowed ground of the Normandy American Cemetery, some attendees of Biden’s speech — in which he denounced isolationism — wore red MAGA hats.
Behind all the powerful images of that place and the stories of a united Western alliance in World War II was the grim reality that, 80 years later, Americans are deeply divided.
Then this week – just days after his son’s conviction – Biden flew to Italy for the G7 meeting of leading Western countries and Japan.
At the top of Biden’s agenda was a 10-year U.S. security deal with Ukraine, as well as a $50 billion loan to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“Time and time again, we will stand with Ukraine,” Biden said in Italy on Thursday.
But what the policy stakes of the 2024 election underscore is that the future of that US-Ukraine security deal could depend on the winner in November, given Trump’s past rhetoric on Russia and Ukraine.
In election years, these international trips can boost a commander-in-chief’s image at home — and allow him to plant the American flag abroad (as both Ronald Reagan and Biden did in D-Day speeches four decades apart) .
But with polls showing that the economy, inflation, immigration and democracy are American voters’ top concerns for the upcoming election, it is highly likely that these were Biden’s last trips abroad before the election – especially as the campaign of 2024 only really heats up with the first debate. this month.
From hugs to guillotines, Trump’s fundraising emails are a rollercoaster
By Amanda Terkel
“I’m thinking about you.”
“Do you need a hug?”
“I love you.”
“They want to sentence me to death!”
No, these aren’t increasingly desperate attempts at romance (albeit with a terrifying swerve at the end) from someone you met on a dating app.
They are fundraising emails from Donald Trump.
“It’s like a battery test for multiple personalities. I don’t know exactly what they’re aiming for,” said Democratic strategist Tim Lim.
But for the Trump campaign, the answer is clear: “a personal feeling.”
“The Trump campaign cares about its supporters and every American. President Trump’s supporters appreciate messages that have a personal feeling, in addition to messages that highlight Crooked Joe Biden’s record of failure and weakness,” said Caroline Sunshine, deputy communications director for the Trump campaign.
Politicians (and con artists) have long relied on emotional appeals to get people to part with their money. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee became the scourge of donors’ inboxes with frequent, dire fundraising emails like “URGENT” and “We are on the cusp of the Dem-pocalypse,” begging loyal Democrats for money to give before it was too late.
Then-President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helped the country get to this point, as it realized the effectiveness of casual subject lines that sounded like they were coming from a friend. Things like “Hey” and “I don’t normally send email” made a lot of money.
But if Obama was your laid-back friend who wanted to grab a cup of coffee, Trump’s mood shifts from intimacy to fear and back again.
Read more about Trump’s fundraising pleas →
That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback – like it or not – please email us at politicsnieuwsbrief@nbcuni.com
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
