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The World Ahead | United States in 2024

America will need a new vocabulary to discuss its presidential election

Unprecedented, uncharted, not unthinkable

Map of the US with Trump's shadow looming.
image: Alberto Miranda

By John Prideaux

Barring unforeseen illness or death, the 2024 presidential election will be a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. This will be confirmed by the party primaries, which in 2024 will be completed much earlier than usual. Normally the incumbent president is chosen as his party’s nominee without much of a fight. On the Democratic side that will happen again. But the Republican side, where one candidate is so far ahead already that he has been able to skip the early debates, will be much weirder.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “Unprecedented, uncharted, not unthinkable”

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