After the midterm elections in November 2022, Republicans officially took control of the House of Representatives in early January, while the Senate passed into the hands of the Democrats, possibly with the additional vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
This separation of powers could largely prevent Democrats from unilaterally passing laws and projects in the House, supported by “emergency legislation” passed with the left-wing vote due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Americans are ready for change after two disastrous years under the leadership of the Democratic Party and the far left,” conservative officials said at the time in a statement that also promised corruption investigations into the Biden family; Address the chaos at the country's southern border and the failed economic management of the tenant of the White House.
Republican control of the House of Commons
Although the so-called red tide failed to materialize in the 2022 general election, Trump consolidated his Republican lead with more than 89% of victories for the conservative representatives, senators and governors he supported.
After 14 rounds of voting, Kevin McCarthy achieved the 218 votes he needed to be elected president of the House of Commons on a promise not to make significant concessions to the far left, including key demands to resolve the national security crisis at the border between Mexico and Mexico the United States, in addition to regulating the open check of funds for Ukraine, among other matters of great interest.
McCarthy directed the House Oversight Committee to open a formal corruption investigation into the Biden family, which included the president himself, his brother and the president's son, Hunter Biden.
In late September, McCarthy agreed with Democrats and Biden on a proposed budget extension through November 17 that prevented a federal government shutdown.
Although the pact excluded new funding requested for Ukraine in the war against Russia, one of Democrats' key demands, it outraged some conservatives; among them Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who immediately filed a motion to fire McCarthy that was supported by more than a dozen colleagues.
For three weeks, federal congressmen Jim Jordan (Ohio), Steve Scalise (Louisiana) and Tom Emmer (Minnesota) tried unsuccessfully to become the new speaker of the House of Commons.
Mike Johnson finally succeeded in late October, in the midst of Israel's war against the terrorist group Hamas, which launched a brutal rocket and ground attack on October 7 that left about 1,400 Israeli civilians dead and that triggered the forceful response from Tel Aviv with iron swords.
The Israeli government declared days before the end of 2023 that the war would continue in 2024 until the complete elimination of Hamas.
Biden's $106 billion funding request is currently blocked in Congress. Of that, more than $60 billion would go to Ukraine, while the rest includes aid for Israel and Taiwan, among other issues.
Chronic chaos at the border
The conservatives made this last tranche of aid requested by Biden dependent on this radical measures the government to stop the chaos at the southern border. In recent weeks, between 10,000 and 12,000 migrants have arrived in the border area every day.
The cost of federal and state funding directly and indirectly attributable to the White House's Open Door policy is estimated to be more than $600 billion in the three years since its implementation.
So far, the government in Washington does not seem determined to curb this uncontrolled illegal immigration for 36 months; He has even asked the United States Supreme Court to order Texas Governor Greg Abbott to remove razor wire lines across border barriers.
At his most recent meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a few days before the end of 2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed to keep the border open as part of new measures.
One of the big setbacks for Republican leader Johnson – in addition to the immigration issue – is to avoid the federal government closing again at the end of January, when the previously agreed budget extension expires.
China's espionage and the threat from Iran
Another big event of the year was the appearance of a China spy balloon which, after crossing much of the national airspace, was shot down on the way out off the coast of South Carolina, but drew intense criticism of the Biden administration and the Defense Department; and, in particular, many doubts about the deliberate actions of the Asian giant and about the national security of the United States.
The event heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing to the point of an abrupt cessation of China's military communications with the Pentagon, which was normalized days before Xi Jinping's visit to San Francisco, California, on November 15.
Despite the tensions, the federal Congress approved the largest military budget in the country's history on a bipartisan basis: $886 billion.
Republicans and Democrats united on the issue of national defense amid the challenges and measures posed by the consolidation of a dangerous military alliance between China, Russia and Iran, which is currently processing uranium enriched above 60% despite warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency Agency (IAEA) and the White House.
In his three years in office, Biden continues to renege on his other promises to sign a new deal with Tehran to try to stop the country on its apparent path to producing a missile or nuclear bomb.
Trump versus Biden
The year 2023, ahead of the presidential elections in November 2024, was a fairly active political period in the United States, particularly in relation to the Justice Department and the legal allegations – unprecedented in the country's history – against a former North American president: Donald J. Trump, who is facing three trials at the same time.
On the other hand, there are also the allegations and trial against Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden and the current president's alleged connections to shady dealings in Ukraine and China, which Republican representatives and experts are now officially investigating with a view to “impeachment proceedings”. of the tenant of the White House.
Biden emerges as the Democratic candidate for re-election, while Trump remains the heavy favorite to retain his right to run for president again in the election. However, in another unusual case, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the former Republican president would not appear on the primary ballot in that state due to a first-time use clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Time against a former North American president.
The justices ordered the nation's 45th president to be barred from running for the Oval Office without first having a court ruling against Trump over his alleged involvement in the so-called “January 6 Insurrection” around and within the Capitol in Washington. Then the same thing happened in the state of Maine, while in Michigan the state Supreme Court rejected a similar petition.
The verdicts are under appeal and Trump's defense has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on both decisions.
In April, Congress approved Ketanji Brown Jackson for a seat on the Supreme Court in Washington. Brown became like this the first black judge in the highest judicial authority in the country.
The allegations against Trump have not stopped him from leading all polls on voting intentions for the Republican primaries and as a potential candidate against Biden in the November 2024 presidential election.
In the 2024 general election, Trump leads his closest primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by more than 50 points and between 6 and 8 points ahead of Joe Biden.
Violence and artificial intelligence
Gun violence has not stopped in 2023.
The most recent mass shooting in the United States occurred in Lewiston, Maine, in late November, when a man opened fire at a bowling alley and restaurant, killing at least 18 people. Another 13 people were injured.
The event became the 36th mass crime in the country in 2023, with a tally of nearly 200 deaths due to this type of homicide.
There have been more than 560 mass killings in the country since 2006, in which about 2,900 people lost their lives, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press and USA Today.
For these reasons, lawmakers from both parties this year passed new federal regulations governing the sale and purchase of firearms, particularly large-caliber firearms.
The topics of discussion between federal representatives and senators in 2023 will continue to include the dilemma of artificial intelligence, which on the one hand sees as a necessary development and others are calling for a brake in view of the serious dangers that it poses to human development.
Members of Congress from both parties decided, with the advice of scientists and experts, to submit a bill for a vote, possibly in 2024, that would bring together general and specific regulations to respond to increasing concerns about the progress of this new technology and its consequences.
Foreign policy
In foreign policy, the Biden administration's priorities in 2023 continued to be war in Ukraine and open challenges from China, North Korea and Iran; But the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel opened a new destabilizing chapter in the Middle East that threatens to extend beyond the borders of Gaza and Israel with the recent bombing of the radical Palestinian group's offices in Beirut, Lebanon.
Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist movement with much more power and military organization than Hamas, has shown its intent to confront Israel.
It appears that Washington's warnings have had an impact and have halted Hezbollah's advance for the time being.
Declaring that this extremist group's entry into the war between Israel and Hamas would lead to a direct U.S. offensive in Lebanon, the Biden administration immediately moved its largest aircraft carrier with frigates to the Mediterranean, near the coast of Israel, Egypt and the Lebanon as a preventative measure.
Although 2023 was a politically turbulent year in the United States, it also saw record natural disasters due to the impacts of 23 major climate phenomena, with a total of 250 deaths and an estimated average cost of more than $1 billion each.
In this way, the US predicted that 2024 would be another year of events and great political activity, as is traditionally the case in the period just before the presidential election.
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