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George W Bush

This Month

Donald Trump may be the worst possible person to guide America through the turmoil that’s probably ahead.

The new world order looks like mercantilism

The chaotic politics of the past 16 years masked the steady development of a new economic order, but trade and the economy aren’t zero-sum games.

  • John Authers

November

The economics behind ‘credible threats’

Good strategy involves knowing the game, including your opponents, and committing to a strategy.

  • Richard Holden
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally.

Trump claims election is being stolen again

The former president is priming his supporters to claim another election steal if he doesn’t win big.

  • Jennifer Hewett
The US Capitol Dome as the government goes through a partial shut-down.

America’s search for a new role continues

Despite the mediocrity of the candidates, America is not down for the count. But it is wasting precious time to redefine its world role

  • James Curran

September

Strategists say Kamala Harris should not allow herself to be provoked by Donald Trump.

Harris under poll pressure ahead of crucial debate

The debate will subject Ms Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

  • Michelle Price and Zeke Miller
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August

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

July

Republican chairman for Maine Joel Stetkis at the Republican National Convention, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. Photo: Matthew Cranston.

‘I carry a firearm every day’: party chief who wanted gun inside RNC

Guns were allowed to the edge of the Republican National Convention perimeter this week. Their own politicians wanted to bring their pistols inside the venue.

  • Matthew Cranston
 Ronald Reagan waves and then looks up before being shoved into the President’s limousine by secret service agents after being shot outside a Washington hotel, March 30, 1981.

A history of political assassination in the US

There have been several instances of political violence targeting US presidents, former presidents and major party presidential candidates.

  • Darlene Superville and Christina Cassidy
Joe Biden speaks during an event commemorating the 75th Anniversary of NATO.

What if Joe Biden stays?

A second presidential term that was already burdened with political disadvantage will be incalculably more difficult because of questions about his age.

  • Peter Spiegel

June

Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The former is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the election.

Biden-Trump debate comes with great risks and rewards for both men

In appealing to divided and often angry voters, the past and present presidents will need to navigate a minefield of perceptions and realities.

  • Lisa Lerer, Shane Goldmacher, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman

May

Nothing to fear. Donald Trump speaks to Miami Formula One winner Lando Norris on Sunday (Monday AEST).

Gallows humour and escape: Trump’s possible return rattles Washington

Much of official Washington is bracing for the former president’s return – this time with ‘retribution’ as his avowed mission, the discussion is about self-imposed exile.

  • Peter Baker

March

Phillip Swagel: “It would behove policymakers to reduce deficits substantially in part because there are big demographic challenges coming down the pike.”

US faces Liz Truss-style market shock as debt soars, warns watchdog

The Congressional Budget Office chief says the US fiscal burden was on an “unprecedented” trajectory, risking a crisis of the kind that sparked a run on the pound in 2022.

  • Claire Jones
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want the expansion of NATO, and opposes Ukraine joining it as well.

NATO didn’t make Putin invade Ukraine

It is Vladimir Putin’s inability to tolerate an independent Ukraine, not NATO’s presence in eastern Europe, that has driven this brutal invasion.

  • Jon Richardson

February

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has been at the helm for eight years.

Woolies CEO says shoppers want ‘value’ not ‘broader conversations’

After a bruising political bunfight over Australia Day merchandise, the Woolworths boss says shoppers want the retail giant to “focus on delivering value”.

  • Carrie LaFrenz and Jemima Whyte

January

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Howard still ducks key Iraq question

Former prime minister John Howard has defended his record on committing Australia to the Iraq war. But we are no closer to fully understanding his reasons.

  • James Curran
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Then prime minister John Howard preparing to visit Australian troops in Iraq in 2004.

Howard fires back on Iraq war after cabinet papers row

Former PM John Howard has challenged the “fragile arguments” over his support of the 2003 Iraq invasion, while recognising it was his most unpopular decision.

  • Andrew Tillett
Donald Trump says he is immune.

Trump warns of ‘bedlam’ as court greets immunity claim with scepticism

Lawyers want the Court of Appeals to overturn a lower-court ruling that rejected the former president’s claims of immunity in the Department of Justice’s 2020 election subversion case.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
The persistent popularity of Donald Trump is a sign of Americans’ refusal to settle for the status quo.

America has seen it all – another Trump term won’t destroy it

I believe in America enough to think that it would take more than another term of Trump as president to destroy American democracy.

  • Gideon Rachman
John Howard with George W Bush on a visit by the prime minister to the president’s Texas ranch in 2003.

History damns John Howard on Iraq war

Even when released, the cabinet documents relating to the 2003 Iraq war will not reveal the impulses that drove John Howard into a disastrous commitment.

  • James Curran

Iraq war secrecy reignites calls for inquiry

Every year the National Archives releases cabinet documents from 20 years earlier, but it is what was not released for 2003, the year Australia committed troops to Iraq, that has sparked the most attention.

  • Ronald Mizen

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/george-walker-bush-32y