World leaders and diplomats abroad increasingly believe President Joe Biden's stance in the Gaza war is boosting former President Donald Trump's chances of reclaiming the White House, Politico reported.
Trump's "Make America Great Again" focus, plus his demand that NATO allies pay their fair share, causes many international leaders to prefer that Biden get reelected.
However, the president's refusal to break fully from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's approach to the war against Hamas' terrorists has created the thinking that Biden will lose to Trump.
"Some are starting now to question whether the United States is willing to take some decisive leadership," said former State Department official Heather Conley, current president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Politico reported Thursday.
Thoughts that Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, could win in the general election were supported Wednesday when The Economist released a forecast that shows the former president with a roughly 2-in-3 chance of returning to the White House.
Biden, meanwhile, currently only has about a 1-in-3 chance to win reelection, according to The Economist.
"The level of concern is something between panic and terror," former Obama State Department official Jeremy Shapiro said of foreign thinking that Trump could win, Politico reported. "The alliance is too important for these countries right now."
Recent polls have shown that many voters, especially young voters and minorities, say they disapprove of Biden's handling of the Gaza war.
Historian Stephen Wertheim, in a New York Times opinion column on Tuesday, wrote, "Never in the decades since the Cold War has the United States looked less like a leader of the world and more like the head of a faction — reduced to defending its preferred side against increasingly aligned adversaries, as much of the world looks on and wonders why the Americans think they're in charge."
Biden allies in the U.S. and internationally increasingly see a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas as helping to prevent Trump from winning the presidency.
Biden has pushed for a cease-fire, but Hamas insists any agreement must secure an end to the war — a demand Israel still rejects.
"We really want it to succeed," one senior European official said of Biden's push for a deal, according to Politico.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that Biden will urge fellow leaders of Group of Seven nations to support cease-fire negotiations and encourage Hamas to accept a proposal backed by Israel.
Biden also will huddle with other world leaders in search of new ways to get aid to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off Russia's invasion, NBC News reported.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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