Foreign Influence on American Elections

When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, the whole world was shocked and could not believe it. The odds were so much in favor of Hillary Clinton that it seemed impossible for her to lose, and yet, she did. Unsurprisingly, American intelligence agencies found that there was an outside source, the Russian government, that attempted to interfere with the elections and affect the outcome. This inevitably became a political issue which caused numerous debates on the severity of Russian collusion and on who exactly they were colluding with; was this planned or was this purely circumstantial? Nevertheless, as Trump’s presidency ensued and no concrete evidence could pinpoint a culprit, the American people forgot about RussiaGate. However, our elections are once again at risk of foreign collusion but this time from China, not Russia.

One of the main ideas Trump campaigned for was getting “fairer trade” with other countries; one such country was China. In his first two years of office, Trump has put tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods. Trump has also done this with a few other nations, but China has taken the most drastic action in response. Not only are they announcing tariffs on billions of dollars of U.S. goods, but they are also purposely targeting goods produced in states that are loyal to the President. This escalating trade war could have a major impact on the upcoming midterm elections where the Democrats have a chance to win back many seats in Congress. If this were to happen, Trump would lose much of the power he has gained since he became the leader of the Republican Party, and he would be at risk of losing the 2020 Presidential Election. If the Chinese are successful in this trade war, the states that were most loyal to Trump would most likely turn their backs on him, effectively denying the key support Trump needed and still needs to be President. While much of this is still theory and speculation, it is clear that Trump will need to take even more drastic action to preserve not only his power but that of the Republican Party, as well.