America Is Under Attack—It Needs a Commander-in-Chief – Heritage.org

America’s liberal-dominated media and “progressive” ruling elites have finally woken up to the reality of President Biden’s rapid mental and physical decline. They are now in a huge state of panic as the November presidential election looms large on the horizon. At the same time, America’s allies are witnessing a rapidly unfolding White House train wreck on the international stage, one that is immensely damaging to the standing and image of the world’s superpower.

In the wake of the horrific assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the United States is on edge, and Biden’s earlier incendiary attacks on his predecessor as a threat to democracy have been condemned by several senators on Capitol Hill. Biden is now facing growing criticism of both his fiery political rhetoric as president, and his poor showing representing the United States at major international events.

Joe Biden’s theatrical performance at last week’s NATO summit in Washington will have done nothing to reassure even his biggest supporters, as the U.S. president introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at the summit’s final press conference. For many NATO allies this was the final straw. A stark acknowledgment that the leader of the free world is so mentally incapacitated that he confuses the names of the leader of a nation that has been brutally invaded by Russia with the barbaric figure in the Kremlin who is overseeing the invasion.

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The NATO gathering itself was meant to be a celebration and a show of strength, with the addition of Sweden and Finland to the alliance, and strong backing for increased defence spending across the alliance, in no small part due to the tremendous pressure that Donald Trump had earlier delivered to Europe when he was in the Oval Office. But it was undoubtedly overshadowed and undermined by Biden’s awful gaffe at the end which no doubt delighted the Kremlin, and made the U.S president look completely ridiculous.

Biden also inexplicably kept world leaders waiting for 20 minutes on the third and final day of the summit, which did not go down well with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who was filmed visibly rolling her eyes in annoyance over the U.S. president’s slack timekeeping and clear lack of respect for his waiting guests. Meloni’s eye movements were symbolic of increasing frustration among NATO allies over Biden’s growing disregard for sticking to protocol and schedules at international summits, either a sign of outright arrogance or a lack of energy for the job.

Respect for Biden is rapidly falling among America’s allies, not only due to his endless gaffes, but because he projects weakness rather than strength, indecision instead of assertiveness, and has a willingness to throw U.S. friends under the bus if it doesn’t suit his interests. This is a perilous moment, when the enemies of the free world are growing increasingly emboldened, and America’s closest friends can’t always rely on Washington.

Israel and Great Britain have experienced Biden’s ambivalence most sharply. The Biden administration has demonstrated outright hostility and contempt towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his government’s military operations in Gaza, and actively sank the immediate prospects for a trade deal with the United Kingdom soon after taking office.

Jerusalem and London (at least until the recent change of prime minister) have been acutely aware of Biden’s propensity for knifing partners in the back, but across the Atlantic more and more European NATO allies are expressing concerns as well.

In recent weeks and months I have met with multiple European leaders, government officials and parliamentarians who are greatly concerned over the lack of U.S. leadership today. Many have expressed fears that the United States looks rudderless, confused and lacking in strategic coherence, from the Middle East to Asia to the war in Ukraine. Many see Biden as a steeply declining lame duck figure, whose credibility is rapidly diminishing. They do not fear a potential change of presidency in the United States. In fact many European allies would welcome it as a return to strong American leadership in the world.

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In many respects, President Biden combines the worst of all worlds. His clearly evident mental and physical downward spiral is matched by a Barack Obama-style “leading from behind” mindset, where the United States is content to sit back as its adversaries from Beijing to Tehran grow more aggressive, confident and assertive.

The United States is a superpower without a real commander in chief, and lacking in any clear vision or strategy for confronting its greatest threat, Communist China, stopping the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran, or deterring Russia from expanding its nefarious ambitions in Europe.

The dazed and confused look that President Biden displays at every international summit, including last week’s NATO meeting, is the sad image the United States now projects to the globe under his weak-kneed presidency. The stunning decline of Joe Biden is sadly mirrored by America’s descent on the world stage. It is an incredibly dangerous state of affairs, one that threatens not only America’s future but the peace and security of the entire free world.