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Barack Obama

Today

Dakota governor Doug Burgum, shale magnate Harold Hamm, and Trump energy secretary nominee Chris Wright.

How oil ‘wildcatters’ seized Trump’s energy agenda

Shale barons are jubilant about the Republican’s plan for US “energy dominance”. Climate campaigners fear four years of global warming denialism.

  • 1 hr ago
  • Myles McCormick and Jamie Smyth

This Month

Billionaire Elon Musk has donated at least $US132 million to Trump and his allies.

What now for Musk as Trump gamble pays off?

The billionaire chief of Tesla and X looks set to take up an influential adviser role in the White House.

  • Stephen Morris and Hannah Murphy
Trump’s success was driven more by economic anxiety than red-hatted MAGA diehards.

Don’t worry: America and Australia will survive this election

Harris was hindered and Trump boosted by the economic issues that have plagued incumbent governments around the world.

  • Michael Green
Former president Donald Trump and Apple boss Tim Cook.

The top five billionaire tech bros who are on the Trump train

From fawning phone calls to huge donations, here’s how the historically progressive bosses of Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI are preparing.

  • Amelia McGuire
Kamala Harris appears on NBC’s Saturday Night Live with Maya Rudolph.

‘You got this’: Harris joins SNL for a pep talk With Maya Rudolph

The vice president’s appearance, in a sketch delivered across a fictional dressing-room mirror, contained a solid riff that poked some fun at Donald Trump.

  • Katie Rogers, Nicholas Nehamas and Maggie Haberman
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Five days on a Greyhound bus into an anxious America

Catching a Greyhound bus across the “rust belt” swing states gives an extraordinary insight into the psyche of American voters ahead of the US presidential election.

  • Matthew Cranston

October

Kamal Harris and Beyoncé at a rally in Texas last week.

Democrats are leaning on celebrity star power. Will it matter?

As the 2024 campaign whirls into its final week, Democrats are noticeably leaning on their star power advantage, calling on a diverse range of celebrities.

  • Dan Merica
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally on Tuesday, a week before the election.

Trump, allies link Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment to 2016 ‘deplorables’

President Joe Biden provided ammunition to the Republican campaign by appearing to call Trump supporters “garbage” while talking to Latino allies by video.

  • Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman
Obama

Harris enlists Michelle Obama to rebuild momentum in tied election

The former first lady delivered an impassioned plea to male voters, saying the risks Donald Trump poses to women’s health at this election were too great.

  • Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Nicholas Nehamas
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a new-found support for early voting.

Republicans flock to polling booths on Trump’s call

More than 18 million Americans have voted early in the presidential election, as Donald Trump supporters take notice of his new-found enthusiasm for the procedure.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
Deserted cities: most do not understand that inflation was caused by the stimulus that saved them in the pandemic.

Why the RBA has a massive public education job to do

Inflation is high because of the stimulus that Canberra and the RBA poured on in the pandemic. But the public struggles to understand this.

  • Michael Stutchbury
Benjamin Netanyahu

A gift has fallen into Netanyahu’s lap, now end the war

In Washington, Europe and the Middle East, there is now hope that this moment will mark the beginning of the end of the horrors of the past year in Gaza.

  • Adrian Blomfield
A Chinese fighter jet takes off from an aircraft carrier near Taiwan.

Japan’s China paradox has lessons for Australia

Japan’s new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, wants a more equal relationship with the US. That could spell trouble as Tokyo confronts the “deep threat” from China.

  • James Curran
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Harris launches media blitz to regain momentum

The push marks a gamble by the Democratic candidate to reach a wider pool of voters as party leaders worry she is losing momentum to Trump.

  • Lauren Fedor
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Why Democrats are nervous about Harris campaign

Behind all the US campaign razzmatazz, there is apprehension at the seemingly stalled momentum of the vice president’s reinvention to become their candidate.

  • Jennifer Hewett
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Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at East Carolina University: ”

Harris challenges ‘weak and unstable’ Trump to fitness test, interview

The vice president’s attack marked an attempt to turn the tables on Trump, who for months had suggested that Joe Biden was too old to be president.

  • Nicholas Nehamas and Maya King
Time is running out … Kamala Harris in Washington last week.

Time for Kamala Harris to start ‘scaring the crap out of voters’

Veteran political strategist James Carville and others in the Democrats camp are worried their presidential candidate is failing to land the hard punches as the weeks tick by.

  • Maureen Dowd

August

Donald Trump on the hustings this week.

Republicans fear Trump’s campaign strategy is failing

Republicans are anxious about Trump’s failure to mount effective attacks on the vice president and his embrace of fringe politicians.

  • James Politi, Steff Chávez and Alex Rogers
Joe Biden.

Biden was good at managing America’s decline

Between the peak of something and its ultimate demise, a vast amount can be achieved. Perhaps it took a man who became president at 78 to see the point.

  • Janan Ganesh
Kamala Harris.

The astonishing metamorphosis of Kamala Harris

Her shift from indifferent vice president to source of Obama-scale enthusiasm has caught many unaware. Yet Democratic talk of victory is dangerously premature.

  • Updated
  • Edward Luce

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/barack-obama-241