Ben Lowry: The American presidential election nightmare choice of Joe Biden or Donald Trump

An angry Donald Trump speaks after a jury convicted him of felony crimes for falsifying business records on Thursday. It was already clear that he was a man of bad character. Meanwhile it has been obvious for years that Joe Biden's memory and mental faculties have been declining (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Two appalling candidates are set to stand against one another for the White House in November.

One, President Joe Biden, is plainly suffering from some sort of age related memory decline, the first signs of which were apparent when he challenged Donald Trump four years ago, in the autumn of 2020. Since then his mental faculties have deteriorated to the point where he is embarrassingly ill suited to lead the US.

The other, Mr Trump, is now a convicted felon, and was in any event a man of reprehensible character who in sane times would get nowhere near the Oval Office.

This disastrous pair of options is set to be on ballot papers despite the fact that polls consistently show that Americans dislike both candidates. Almost any Democratic Party candidate other than President Biden would beat Mr Trump, and almost any Republican Party candidate other than Mr Trump would unseat President Biden.

​It has been obvious that Donald Trump was utterly unsuited to be president for almost a decade, since the first presidential debate among candidates for the Republican Party nomination in 2015, which took place the year before the 2016 election. Trump went on to win that Republican contest and then beat Hillary Clinton to the White House.

At first I thought that he would be sunk by his contemptible conduct, which I used to say was that of a 12-year-old, until younger relatives of mine passed the age of 12 and I realised him to be far worse. For example, most children of that age have already passed the stage of saying that they “know far more” than people with whom they disagree who in fact are vastly more knowledgeable than they, but this is what Mr Trump did about pretty much everyone, from fire chiefs to military leaders to health experts.

Most children of 12, while they might well snigger at the appearance of other kids, are already too mature to insult them openly about it. Not Trump, who still does this.

Such tendencies alone show that he has not the temperament to lead any section of society, let alone a superpower. And yet Mr Trump is so emotionally fragile and infantile that he would gush about global leaders who are mortal enemies of America if they flattered him, and he would lash out against leaders who are trusted allies if had the temerity to criticise him even mildly.

This is a man so money orientated that he approved of the LIV tour attempt to buy the golfing world on behalf of Saudi Arabia, the country more than any other that was implicated in the evil terrorist Islamic fanatic mass murders of September 11. It would not occur to him to focus instead on finding common cause with western countries that might stand out against such hostile cultures. On the contrary, he has questioned whether he will support the vital Nato alliance of states that defend western democracies.

He is an American isolationist who has no real sympathy with Ukraine in its existential struggle against Russia, after an invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin – whom Trump seems to admire.

He is also a president whose financial and military support for Israel against the Islamic extremist barbarians of Hamas is not guaranteed.

Mr Biden, meanwhile, is shockingly unfit for office. I am a nervous wreck when watching him speak in public, afraid that his memory loss will soon lead to some sort of excruciating and devastating mishap even more humiliating than the atrocious incidents that we have already seen, such as him confusedly wandering off stage from ongoing ceremonies.

We keep hearing that Mr Biden is “too old” for office as if being 81 automatically makes him so. But there have always been people who are still capable of high office in their 80s – for example, Cardinal de Fleury, who in the early News Letter reports of the 1730s is clearly running France, despite being age 85, on behalf of its then king.

In fact Mr Trump showed yesterday, in his public rant against conviction, that he is far more mentally alert than Mr Biden, despite being almost 80 himself. Age is not the problem with Trump.

The foolish decision to prioritise this hush money case against him over other allegations makes him all the more likely to win come November. He is guilty of far worse, including his inflammatory lies and attempted insurrection over the 2020 election.

The tragedy is that America badly needs a sensible but strong Republican Party president to tackle immigration, woke extremism, huge debts and grievous threats to peace from dictators in Russia, Iran and China.

And given that Mr Biden in office has prioritised his Irish sympathies over his respect for a close ally, Britain, unionists need such a president too.