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This was less Super Tuesday and more Predictable Tuesday. 

As Donald Trump made his way to the stage at his Mar-a-Lago mansion, he had notched up victories across the country, from Texas to Tennessee, Alabama and many more between.

“This was an amazing day, an amazing night,” he crowed.

At almost exactly the same time, President Biden released a statement. It was an even more dominant performance for the sitting president, capturing all the states in play for him.

“Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear choice: are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards,” he wrote, mentioning Mr Trump three more times in the next four paragraphs.

It is clear where the minds of both men are now focused – 5 November this year, the scheduled date for the US election, and their bitter rival on the other side of the political aisle.

The starting gun in the race to the White House has been fired and this is a contest which will now, almost certainly, be between two old age pensioners who hate each other.

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Donald Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party
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Donald Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party

A hypothetical second term for President Biden would see him still in the White House aged 86 – and 82 for Donald Trump.

It is the oldest presidential head to head in US history and one most people in this country don’t want.

Even in deep blue California, some voters were dismayed that this is now the choice.

“It’s crazy to see that we have such an old president running and you just don’t have a lot of options. It’s sad to see, it’s very disappointing,” said Ghazi, a young Arab-American, as he exited the voting station in LA after spoiling his ballot.

It was a protest vote, he said, not just because of Mr Biden’s age but because of his support of Israel’s military intervention in Gaza.

“The Gaza issue is a big one,” he said.

“I think that the US should call for an immediate ceasefire. I’m probably not going to be flipping over and voting Republican, but I think that it definitely has a huge part to play in me not being an enthusiastic Democratic voter and coming out to vote for Biden.”

Joe Biden speaks at a campaign stop in Michigan in February. Pic: AP
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Joe Biden speaks at a campaign stop in Michigan in February. Pic: AP

Foreign policy is rarely a deciding factor in domestic elections in the US – but the longer the crisis in the Middle East rumbles on and dominates news coverage, the bigger problem it is for President Biden, particularly in key swing states like Michigan with large Arab-American populations.

In his speech, Mr Trump focused on immigration, which has typically been a happy hunting ground for Republicans.

He characterised the southern border as lawless and overrun, laying the blame solely at Mr Biden’s door.

Mr Trump hopes he can win over independent and moderate voters who are turned off by President Biden’s handling of the record influx of migrants. The tone of his speech was familiar, the message being that he and he alone can fix the problem.

He will likely have to wait another week before he is crowned the Republican nominee because his rival Nikki Haley is clinging on for now. But the race for the White House is all but cemented.

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Trump wants to emulate Putin and govern US in ‘a similar fashion’, his former national security adviser says

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Trump wants to emulate Putin and govern US in 'a similar fashion', his former national security adviser says

Donald Trump wants to emulate Vladimir Putin and “govern his own country in a similar fashion”, his former national security adviser has said.

Fiona Hill told Sky News’ The World with Yalda Hakim that the US and Russian presidents both share the same view of the world as being “divided up among three major powers; Russia, the US and China, with very clear spheres of influence”.

She said the two leaders “have shockingly similar world views”.

Ukraine war latest: Trump hits out at Zelenskyy

Pic: Reuters
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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Pic: Reuters

“This is the first time we’ve had a US president who wants to emulate the Russian leader in some way, who wants to create a hyper-personalised presidency, who wants to basically govern his own country in a very similar fashion, very top down without any checks and balances,” she said.

Ms Hill added Mr Trump wants to “regularise, normalise and reset” the relationship between the US and Russia.

“That’s very clear, it’s been clear since the first presidency of Trump,” she said.

“He’s always wanted to sit down with Vladimir Putin and sort out all of the difficulties in the bilateral relationship, everything from nuclear issues and nuclear arms reduction – there’s all kinds of economic and business deals that Trump himself and his immediate circle are very interested in.

“That was not the direction of travel of other US presidents. So in actual fact there’s probably more chance under Trump of a close relationship between the US and Putin.”

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Ms Hill said Mr Trump has an interest in forging a “personal relationship” beyond what he already has with Mr Putin.

“He wants to extricate the United States from its support for Ukraine, he’s said that very clearly,” she said.

“He also wants to pull back from the underpinning of European security and get the Europeans to pick up not just support for Ukraine, but also much more involvement and much more in-depth payment for all of their own security, that’s also very clear.

“So there is a strategic perspective there and I think part of the US strategy and the Trump administration strategy is to push the Europeans to go off essentially on their owns in terms of framing what they want in European security and making it very clear to the Ukrainians that they can’t expect much more future support from the United States.”

It comes as Mr Trump claimed a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is “very close”.

Hours after US secretary of state Marco Rubio withdrew from high-level talks in London aimed at ending the conflict, the American president heaped pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “get it done”.

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Depth of Trump’s frustration revealed in comments on Zelenskyy – and there was one notable absence in his Truth Social post

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Depth of Trump's frustration revealed in comments on Zelenskyy - and there was one notable absence in his Truth Social post

The White House is desperate for a breakthrough.

Donald Trump vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of assuming office.

This is day 94 of his second presidency.

Ukraine war latest: ‘We are very close to deal’, Trump claims

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Ukraine war Q&A: Could Trump walk away?

Last Friday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that America was ready to “move on” if there wasn’t a deal soon.

If that comment, reinforced by President Trump, was designed to put pressure on Ukraine, it didn’t have the desired effect.

That became clear when Rubio pulled out of peace negotiations in London, a summit downgraded to technical talks.

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It’s not that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won’t back down, it’s that he can’t.

The US plan to recognise Russia‘s claim to Ukrainian territory it has seized effectively legitimises Moscow’s decision to invade.

To concede that would be a breach of Ukraine’s constitution.

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Ukraine has not hinted at recognising Crimea as Russian ‘for even a day’

The country’s economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko says they’re “ready to negotiate, not ready to surrender”.

US vice president JD Vance has now stepped into Marco Rubio’s shoes, warning that America will “walk away” if there isn’t a “yes” from both sides.

But President Trump is only talking about one side: Ukraine.

The absence of any reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his lengthy post online will not have gone unnoticed.

He claimed no one was asking Zelenskyy to recognise Crimea as Russian, but contradicted that by asking why Ukraine hadn’t fought for Crimea 11 years ago.

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President Trump blamed the loss of Crimea on one of his predecessors, his reference to “President Barack Hussein Obama” revealing the depth of his frustration.

He claims he is “very close” to a deal, but the signals from Washington, London, Moscow and Kyiv suggest otherwise.

Right now, it feels like he’s much closer to throwing in the towel and throwing Zelenskyy under the bus. Again.

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Trade war: Stock markets rally as Trump rows back on Fed and China threats

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Trade war: Stock markets rally as Trump rows back on Fed and China threats

Global stock markets and the dollar have rallied on hopes of two significant climbdowns by the Trump administration on issues blamed for a slump in values.

Remarks by the US Treasury secretary on punitive tariffs against China lifted the mood on Wall Street initially before the president himself moved to calm market trade war worries and also end speculation he could fire the head of the country’s central bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and tech-focused Nasdaq Composite both ended Tuesday trading 2.7% up, erasing losses of the previous day.

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Asian markets later followed that lead, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gaining 2.4%.

European indices also saw a strong opening, with the FTSE 100 up by more than 1.2%. It was led higher by Asia-focused banks HSBC and Standard Chartered.

US futures suggested Wall Street would pick up where it left off, with further strong gains expected.

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The US dollar – badly hit by trade war implications in recent weeks – was at least a cent higher than a day earlier against many rival currencies including the pound.

The rally gathered steam on Tuesday evening when US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told a private JPMorgan event that he expected a “de-escalation” in the spiralling spat with China.

It’s a fight that has seen US tariffs hit 145% and China responding with duties of 125%.

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Trump: Tariffs are making US ‘rich’

According to a transcript obtained by the Associated Press news agency, he told the audience: “Neither side thinks the status quo is sustainable”, but he added that peace talks were yet to start in earnest and could take time to bear fruit.

His boss later struck a similar tone in remarks to reporters when he said the final tariff rate with China would come down “substantially” from the current 145%.

“It won’t be that high, not going to be that high,” Mr Trump said, adding: “We’re doing fine with China… we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together.”

He gave no hint that he plans to ease wider tariffs on trading partners, including the UK which is currently subject to 25% tariffs on car, steel and aluminium imports and a wider 10% “baseline” tariff.

But the president did row back on an apparent threat, made last week, to sack the chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell in revenge for the US central bank holding off on interest rate cuts that could provide some stimulus to the tariff-hit economy.

Mr Powell has said the Trump administration’s protectionist policies have created uncertainty over growth and the threat of higher inflation.

The president has dismissed those arguments but told reporters: “I have no intention of firing him”.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell speaks at the DealBook Summit in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell was nominated for the role by Donald Trump in 2017. File pic: AP

His comments were widely seen as an attempt to calm financial market concerns that the independence of the country’s central bank was under threat.

Analysts cautioned there was a long way to go to recover values seen before the start of the trade war, with the Nasdaq remaining almost 16% down in the year to date alone.

US government borrowing costs also remain elevated.

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What IMF said about the UK economy

Not helping sentiment were big downgrades to global growth forecasts by the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, said of the investor mood: “Participants understandably remain jittery, not only as the haven value of both Treasuries and the USD (US dollar) continue to be called into question, but also as a huge degree of trade uncertainty continues to linger.

“As a reminder, the whole concept of ’90 deals in 90 days’ is currently running at ‘0 deals in 14 days’ which, to be frank, doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

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