Biden said over the weekend that “The United States stands ready to engage in talks with Russia, China, and North Korea without preconditions to reduce the nuclear threat”, but this is an insincere statement that’s only being spewed in response to Trump’s recent rhetoric on this subject resonating with voters. The Republican candidate claimed during a podcast that he was on the brink of a denuclearization deal with Russia and China, a month prior to which he warned that Kamala could spark World War III.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov rubbished Trump’s claim of a possible deal by retorting that “this does not correspond to reality. We are well aware that the Trump administration’s attempts to bring Chinese representatives to the same negotiating table with us were unsuccessful.” Nevertheless, average Americans will likely never hear what that he had to say, hence why they might believe Trump. It’s with this in mind and amidst his rising poll numbers that Biden took a stab at this issue.
The outgoing leader’s handlers also assumed that average Americans are ignorant of this subject and won’t ever hear the Russian side of the story otherwise they wouldn’t have put him up to saying what he just did about the US’ readiness to engage in talks with Russia to reduce the nuclear threat. That’s because Putin suspended participation in the New START in February 2023 and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that it won’t resume such talks with the US till after the Ukrainian Conflict ends.
Those who follow this already know that, but average Americans don’t, hence why some might fall for Biden’s implied suggestion that Kamala would continue this peaceful policy if she wins. World War III has never been discussed by them as much as it is now after Russia’s recently revised nuclear doctrine, which the Mainstream Media greatly fearmongered about, and unprecedented Israeli-Iranian tensions. Many people are therefore very scared and thus receptive to talk about avoiding World War III.
Both Trump and Biden are lying as was explained, but the first comes off as more believable given the false perception that he was close to Putin and might accordingly have stood a chance at pulling this off, while the second doesn’t have much credibility given his well-known dementia. In any case, since most Americans don’t know that they’re being misled, they might only have the impression that Biden is desperately pulling a page from Trump’s playbook in order to help Kamala.
The takeaway is that the American elite acknowledge that average people are worried about World War III, which is why Trump has made a big deal about how he’ll allegedly prevent this if he returns to office, and then Biden was advised to make it seem like he’s already trying to do so. In reality, the greatest risk of this scenario comes from hawkish forces in the country’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”), who’ve proven their ability to work behind presidents’ backs.
It’s they, much more so than whoever the president may be at any given time, who hold the future of the world in their palms and could end it if they miscalculate in their proxy war on Russia. This doesn’t mean that the risk will remain forever, since presidents can partially counteract these hawkish “deep state” forces, but just that it’s still acute and somewhat beyond their power to stop. Trump might do a better job at this than Kamala, but he’s also erratic, so he might inadvertently worsen such threats.
