In Israel and Brazil elections, Trump's shadow and narrative loom large. Is it 2024 precursor?
A brash leader bogged down by scandal engineered by his opponents gets fired by a democratic nation, and then plots a comeback.
Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu or Jair Bolsonaro?
The answer could be all three.
Netanyahu's remarkable return to center stage in this week's Israeli elections less than two years after his stunning defeat is rewriting a political script with ramifications far outside the Middle East.
While he must still form a government, Netanyahu's strong showing in Tuesday's voting signals voters may value perceived economic and security competence over prickly personality or opponent-driven scandal narratives when the global economy is crashing and turbulence in the world is spurring talk by Joe Biden, at least, of nuclear war and Armageddon.
It's a roadmap that could very well create an intriguing subplot to the comeback that Trump has been plotting for 2024 and the revival Bolsonaro will likely consider after his stinging loss Sunday to leftist opponent Lula da Silva in Brazil.
All three men are inextricably intertwined, by large personality, mutual endorsement, strong economic performance, pro-Israel policy, peace-through-strength diplomacy, and unabashed advocacy for national sovereignty over the increasingly elitist vision of globalism
"It's a very strange time geopolitically, here in the United States, in Israel, and also in South America with Brazil," former congresswoman and GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told Just the News on Tuesday. "These are three very important, once extremely sane countries.
“And we're looking at the insanity that has come in the United States, which has, frankly, shocked the world, the insanity that may return now to Brazil, and then the question, what will happen in Israel?"
The final answer to that question won't be known for a few days, but exit polls have made clear that Netanyahu at the very least has resurrected his career and could very well be the next prime minister.
In other words, Netanyahu is where Trump hopes to be in two years,
Trump, meanwhile, is making plans to announce a run in 2024 after a midterm election in which his handpicked candidates across the country are exceeding the expectations of the mainstream media from Arizona to Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to Florida.
And with the threat of socialism and communism creeping in South America — Lula DaSilva's win a case in point — Trump is already using the implications of Brazil's election as a rallying cry to keep America from the same fate under Biden and the Democrats.
"We really are living in a Communist Country," Trump wrote Tuesday on his Truth Social platform. "We've skipped over Socialism as if it doesn't exist. We've headed straight to the Big 'C', and that's really bad. Get smart Republicans!"
Bolsanaro, on the other hand, finds himself in a media narrative much like Trump after his 2020 election loss. Protests have erupted across Brazil among those who distrust the 1.8% point loss, and Bolsanaro is being accused by the media of refusing to concede even as he pledged to proceed with a peaceful transfer of power.
The departing Brazilian president is even using language similar to Trump's on why popular protests have broken out over the election.
The "current popular movements," he declared Tuesdday night, is "the fruit of indignation and a sense of injustice of how the electoral process unfolded."
So these three men almost certainly will have their futures intertwined for the foreseeable future like their pasts are already. But it's more than just a case of political comeback intrigue. Major global issue like Mideast peace, the Russia-Ukraine war and China's surging influence over the globe are also at stake.
Ron Dermer, Israel's former ambassador to the United States, said he hopes Biden takes a cue from the Netanyahu and U.S. midterm elections to abandon his negotiations with Iran — especially now that Tehran is supplying Russia with deadly drones to attack Ukraine — and pick up the Middle East playbook that Trump left him.
"What should happen right now is the United States should announce that it is not going to negotiate with [the Iranian] regime," Dermer told Just the News. "Biden should give that evil empire speech like Reagan did, and, you know, said 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.' He should give some speech like this to reset American policy towards Iran. They should snap back the U.N. sanctions."
If the Biden administration can shift its Iran policy, "not only will it be better for the security of the region, in the Middle East, it will also help advance peace," the ambassador said, "because under such leadership, Saudi Arabia and other potential allies in the region can come under U.S. leadership and, I think, continue the remarkable breakthrough that we had with the Abraham Accords and actually get a peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia that would be a bulwark of stability for the whole region."
Bachmann said Americans and allies across the world sense a stark difference in the shift from Trump to Biden policies that is impacting economic and security decisions and the outcome of elections.
The midterm election could well be "the reaction of the American people to the absolute meltdown in the United States economy," she said. "But even more importantly, the place of the United States on the world stage.
"We have always been the preeminent military superpower of the world. And now that is in question. And I think it's a very interesting symbolism of Joe Biden himself. He symbolizes personal weakness on the world stage. But he also symbolizes American weakness on the world stage."
That weakness, she said, takes on more importance with China's growing and malign influence spreading socialism and communism in Latin America.
"The Communist Chinese may have sway over Brazil, which is very concerning because Brazil is a resource-rich nation, the biggest, most important nation in all of South America, and that would have profound implications," Bachmann warned.
And that is why three elections just 10 days apart in three separate regions of the world involving three leaders of similar ilk are so intertwined.
"The elections that are happening right now really will change the table geopolitically in the world for these three nations, because they have been the most sane nations in the world," Bachmann said. "And now we're seeing something of a dramatic change."