The World and Everything in It: May 30, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. Hi, I'm Aubrey Eytchison and I'm a student at the 2024 World Journalism Institute. We are in our second week of instruction here at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, learning how to write for print and broadcast from faithful professionals. Thank you for making it possible for us to be here. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! 

Tensions are escalating between China and Taiwan. We’ll talk to an expert about the implications.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, what’s at stake in the upcoming European Union elections.

Plus, it’s Bee Week! Spelling bee that is. More than 200 kids are competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

LOEFFLER: Your curiosity can take you anywhere with just learning some words for a spelling bee.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on lessons learned from Richard Nixon.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, May 30th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for news now with Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Media]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump trial » Scores of reporters pointed cameras and microphones at Manhattan courthouse Wednesday as 12 jurors weighed the fate of former President Donald Trump.

The jury will reconvene this morning for a day-two of deliberations in New York’s business fraud case against him.

Trump told those reporters at the courthouse that the trial has already gone on far too long.

TRUMP: It’s a disgrace. This thing ought to be ended immediately. The judge ought to end it. And save his reputation.

The jury must decide if the former president committed fraud on business documents to silence allegations of an extramarital affair, as prosecutors allege.

Jurors on Wednesday did ask to re-hear testimony and wanted clarification on the judge’s instructions.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charge is a class E felony in New York punishable by up to four years in prison.

But a conviction would not be a guarantee of jail time. The first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is uncharted territory.

World leaders pressure Israel » Many global leaders continue to pile on pressure for Israel to halt military operations in Gaza.

JOLY:  What happened in Rafa is absolutely horrific. Uh, we are against this military operation and we are calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly heard there at a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart.

What happened in Rafah was an Israeli airstrike targeting two Hamas leaders over the weekend. A massive fire then engulfed a tent camp killing dozens of civilians.

Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN Brett Miller says the evidence suggests that it was not the strike itself that caused the fire.

B.MILLER: Preliminary findings indicate the fire broke out due to secondary explosions from terror munitions stored near the civilians. Where are the condemnations of Hamas for using Gazans as human shields and civilian sites as weapon depots?

UN/Israel » But that has done little to sway opinions at the United Nations. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

DUJARRIC: We want this to stop.

And Israel faces renewed condemnation over its Gaza offensive at the UN in the form of a new draft Security Council resolution.

The especially scathing text accuses Israel of “the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, including women and children, and civilian infrastructure.” And the resolution would demand that Israeli forces immediately halt operations in Gaza.

China is among the countries voicing support for the resolution. Chinese diplomat Fu Cong:

CONG (translated): The international community, the UN Security Council in particular, must take further actions to promote an immediate cease-fire.

The U.S. response to the resolution was somewhat muted, but U.S. diplomat Robert Wood remarked …

WOOD:  The fact that Hamas's leaders and fighters hide among civilians does not lessen the requirement for Israel to conduct its operations in accordance with international humanitarian law.

However, U.S. officials did say the resolution would not be helpful or change the situation on the ground.

Waltz on Iran » The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA will meet next month to vote on censuring Iran over the country's nuclear program.

The news comes as the White House is reportedly warning against the move over concerns it would further destabilize Iran and the Middle East.

Those reports drew strong criticism from GOP Congressman Mike Waltz:

WALTZ:  Next. It's going to be one that's weaponized on a warhead. Next. It'll be one that's launchable. They're moving the goalposts, uh, in, in very subtle, but very dangerous ways.

Many Republicans have advocated a return to the heavy pressure policies of the Trump administration … while the Biden White House has voiced a desire to restart the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran.

SOUND: [Speaking Swedish]

Sweden pledges $1.3 Billion to Ukraine » Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch announcing $1.3 billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine.

It’s the third billion-dollar commitment from a supporting country this week.

The move will, among other things, bolster Ukraine’s air defenses.

For now, Sweden is holding off on plans to send Swedish-made fighter jets so Ukraine can focus on introducing American-made F-16 fighter jets donated by several other countries into its fleet.

All told, Sweden has pledged $7 billion dollars in military support for Ukraine over the next three years.

GOP Moves to Overturn HHS Rule on Funding Trans Surgeries » Republicans in Congress are fighting back against President Biden’s move to have taxpayers foot the bill for transgender surgeries. WORLD’S Mark Mellinger has more.

MARK MELLINGER: GOP lawmakers in both chambers have introduced measures to overturn the Biden Administration’s newly expanded definition of ‘sex discrimination.’

In April, the Department of Health & Human Services issued a rule expanding the term to include ‘gender identity’ as it relates to what Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance must cover.

Republicans say that forces taxpayers and insurance companies to fund transgender surgeries, and might compel faith-based organizations to do the same.

The new policy would also overrule state laws blocking or limiting transgender treatments.

But the GOP efforts are unlikely to survive in the Democrat-led Senate.

The rule takes effect July 5th.

For WORLD, I’m Mark Mellinger.

I’m Kent Covington.

Still ahead, what’s at stake in the upcoming EU elections.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 30th of May, 2024. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Can I just have a word?

If you are a regular listener but you’ve never gotten around to supporting The World and Everything in It financially, could I just appeal to you right now?

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BROWN: First up on The World and Everything in It: tension in Taiwan.

On Monday, members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs committee visited Taiwan’s capital, Taipei City. They met with newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te.

Texas Representative Michael McCaul:

MICHAEL MCCAUL: America is and always will be a reliable partner, and no amount of coercion or intimidation will slow down or stop the routine visits by the Congress to Taiwan.

The visit comes just days after China staged large-scale military drills off the coast of Taiwan.

REICHARD: Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Taiwan’s parliament passed legislation that gives the legislative branch more power over state budgets, including defense spending. Some residents say the legislation benefits China.

SEAN SU: I do not believe the legislature should decide what is true or not by simple vote.

BROWN: Joining us now to talk about Taiwan is Dean Cheng. He’s a senior advisor to the China program of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

REICHARD: Dean, good morning.

DEAN CHENG: Good morning.

REICHARD: Well let’s start with a quick refresher: are Taiwan and China distinct countries, and why should it matter to Americans?

CHENG: Taiwan is this odd entity, it refers to itself as the Republic of China. It was the losing side in the Chinese Civil War, where the Republic of China, the Nationalists, fought the Communists who created the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists lost and retreated to the island of Taiwan. It is diplomatically recognized by about a dozen countries. But the United States, when it chose to recognize the PRC in 1979, also said that we do not want mainland China, Communist China, the People's Republic of China, to simply invade and take over Taiwan. And so as a result, we signed something called the Taiwan Relations Act, where we promised to help supply Taiwan with defense goods. It is not a treaty, it is not a mutual defense treaty. So we are not formally absolutely committed to the defense of Taiwan, unlike, say, NATO, and we have sort of diplomatic relations with them, as many other countries also sort of have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

REICHARD: One thing that U.S. lawmakers talked about during their trip was the 4 billion dollar aid package. What kind of military aid did the U.S. promise to send Taiwan in the recent foreign assistance package?

CHENG: So the U.S. is committed at this point to providing a variety of defense items. We have said that we are going to provide M1 tanks; we are recently agreed to sign up more HIMARs, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, they've been very effective in Ukraine, and a variety of munitions. The problem here is that because of our commitments to deliver arms to Ukraine, deliver arms to Israel in their struggle in Gaza, Taiwan has fallen behind, and there's a almost $20 billion backlog right now, in terms of defense items that we have agreed to sell to Taiwan. But in terms of deliveries, it's a good question when that's going to happen.

REICHARD: Back in 2022, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and the Chinese responded by staging live-fire navy drills near the island. How is the pattern similar or different this time around, with China’s military drills ahead of the House Foreign Affairs Committee visit?

CHENG: Well, the good news is that when Speaker Pelosi visited, the Chinese went so far as to fire missiles over Taiwan. That's something that they had actually generally avoided doing at all. That was a huge escalation in tensions, and one we have not seen with this visit, probably in part because it did not include the Speaker of the House. The Chinese instead had been conducting air and naval drills all around the island. These are very large, very substantial, but they don't include that particular provocation. Overall, the message that the Chinese are trying to send—were trying to send after the Pelosi visit, are trying to send now—is the same, however, to the United States: back off, stop supporting Taiwan. Stop supplying arms to Taiwan. And to the Taiwanese who have just inaugurated their new president: it's time for you to come to the table and reunify with the mainland.

REICHARD: I wonder what you make of this. It seems that Taiwan's president is seeking a closer relationship with the U.S. but Taiwan's legislature seems to be heading in a different direction, because on Tuesday, lawmakers there passed legislation that gives Parliament more power over state budgets, and that does include defense spending. So what do you think? Is this a political shift or much ado over budget meetings?

CHENG: Well, one of the things we have seen in Taiwan's political landscape, dating back the last quarter century at this point, is a very, very robust and very, very raucous democracy. This is a legislatures legislative yuan, which has often had fistfights on the floor. And the problem here is that this is exacerbated when you have a divided government as we now see, we have a DPP president, Democratic Progressive Party, and we have a coalition, this has not happened before in the legislature, between the KMT and a small new party, which together forms a majority outnumbering the DPP. You do see very different opinions. The KMT would, they're not interested in reunification, but they want to tamp down and be a little more conciliatory towards the mainland. And you see that the DPP, which, as its founding principle is focused on more pro-independence. So you've got a lot of different moving pieces. But they all basically create and deepen the fissures between new president Lai and the new legislature.

REICHARD: Final question here, Dean. Is there anything else you’re watching as this conflict continues to unfold?

CHENG: Well, one of the other issues here is what is happening on the mainland, and that is the fact that the Chinese economy appears to be slowing down. That is creating a lot of pressures on Xi Jinping. You have a broad set of indicators that suggest that younger people in China don't see the future as particularly rosy under those circumstances. The appeal to Taiwan, "Hey, it's time for you to rejoin the Motherland, rejoin China," becomes a lot less enticing. It's one thing if the Chinese economy is growing, there's going to be people on Taiwan, we're gonna say, hey, you know, maybe rejoining, that's cool. When things are not going well, when you're having more protests, it makes China even less inviting. And I think that that is has got to be weighing on Xi Jinping and how he pressures the island of Taiwan.

REICHARD: Dean Cheng is a senior advisor to the China program of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dean, always appreciate your analysis. Thanks so much.

CHENG: Thank you for having me.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Elections in Europe.

Next week, voters across the European Union will vote on who will make up the 720-member European Parliament and those lawmakers will decide who leads the 27-nation bloc.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The EU has long leaned left on issues like climate change and gender ideology, but the upcoming elections could shift party power. What are the prospects for EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen?

BROWN: WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy reports.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN: I am ready to build a majority for a strong Europe because the center must hold.

MARY MUNCY: Last week, the European Parliament held its final round of presidential debates before voters head to the polls. Incumbent EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen touted her accomplishments in climate policy and helping the continent through COVID-19, but then went on to defend an unpopular decision.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN: I have been working very well with Giorgia Meloni and the European Council as I do with all heads of state as is my task as president of the commission.

Many see Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a “far-right” leader.

Shortly after she was elected last year, Meloni helped push through a bill in Italy that makes surrogacy a crime that can be prosecuted even if it’s committed outside the country, and some saw the move as targeting LGBT people.

Some members of von der Leyen’s party say she’ll lose their support if she continues working closely with Meloni.

INTERVIEWER: Just to double check, Ms. Meloni’s policies on LGBTQI+, for example, don’t bother you?

VON DER LEYEN: I have a complete different approach.

Since EU parliamentarians select the EU Commission President, von der Leyen has good reason to court her party’s votes. But it seems she’s worried that won’t be enough, so she’s started courting what some see as a rising political contingent— the so-called far-right.

She’s walking a fine line, trying to keep her center-right party happy, and gain other votes, so she says she wants to deal with parties, not individual members.

VON DER LEYEN: I want to see where they group themselves and then we work with the groups that are clearly, clearly pro-European, pro-Ukraine, against Putin, and for the rule of law.

So how did von der Leyen win the presidency five years ago, and what is she willing to do to keep her post?

Until von der Leyen, the lead candidate of the party with the most seats in the European Parliament became commission president. But in 2019, members didn’t like the lead candidate. So they plucked German von der Leyen from political obscurity and sent her to one of Europe’s most powerful offices.

Right now, von der Leyen is part of the Christian Democrats—it’s the largest party in the majority center-right coalition, the European People’s Party, or EPP.

EVERT VAN VLASTUIN: She would defend herself very much against everything that is right wing.

Evert van Vlastuin is the chief editor at Christian Network Europe.

VAN VLASTUIN: Ursula von der Leyen is leading a group, the Christian Democrats, that has been one of the most pro-European Union, pro-Federalist movements in postwar European history.

But van Vlastuin says many expected the mother of seven to be much more conservative on social issues than she’s shown herself to be.

In 2021 the Hungarian Prime Minister proposed a bill that said children have a right not to be exposed to homosexuality, and von der Leyen blasted it as discrimination.

But since then, she has been outspoken in support of Israel and Ukraine’s right to defend themselves, though she is also calling for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

VAN VLASTUIN: Many conservatives had high expectations, also Christians from other countries, but most of them, I think, are disappointed in what she really brought forward.

So why is she courting Meloni—someone viewed as far right?

VIVIEN SCHMIDT: The predictions are that the extremes in particular on the right, will come up to maybe 25 percent.

Vivien Schmidt is a professor emeritus of political science and international relations at Boston University and a visiting professor at European universities.

Since the parliament elects the commission president, von der Leyen would need a majority of parliament members’ votes to get reelected.

SCHMIDT: That could alter the balance in the coalition. I think from everything I've read, it looks like the centrist grand coalition would hold, but it would lose a large number of seats—still a majority, but not the kind of majority it was before.

One of the major sticking points between so-called centrist and far-right groups is their views on immigration.

SCHMIDT: Ever since the immigration crisis exploded in 2015, the commission has been negotiating with North Africa, Libya, among other places, to try to keep people in North Africa.

Right now, in addition to the Brothers of Italy Party, Meloni also leads the European Conservatives and Reformists party—and it’s calling for stronger border controls.

SCHMIDT: And the question becomes, at a moment when von der Leyen wants to be reelected commission president, how is her policy going to change? This is the question. And it appears as if she's shifting rightward.

Some of von der Leyen’s biggest policy agendas as leader were COVID relief, shifting to green energy, and trying to lift people out of poverty. But Schmidt says the new commission may not be as focused on these goals and could go with a different candidate.

Schmidt says if the European Commission follows its normal procedure of appointing the leader, von der Leyen is a shoo-in.

SCHMIDT: But the member states already in 2019, in choosing her, demonstrated that they don't necessarily want to follow that procedure.

So her appointment could be up to more political factors like whether other leadership positions are filled by Germans and whether she’ll be able to adapt to a changing EU.

SCHMIDT: My guess is that von der Leyen will be the next president. But my guess is also that this is going to be a different set of policies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

SOUND: [Rooster crowing]

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Feathers are quite ruffled in an English village where more than a hundred feral chickens are running around.

Vanessa Taylor lives there:

VANESSA TAYLOR: They originated on an allotment just down here. Many years ago, I think the man died. And they fended for themselves. I just love them. I think they’re beautiful.

Perhaps, but others say the fowl dig up their gardens and are so noisy people have to wear earplugs at night.

This week the town council invited both sides to debate whether to evict the avians.

Paul Stritch sides with the birds:

PAUL STRITCH: If you live in the country, you can’t complain about the smells or the noise. I mean, when you buy a house here, you gotta be blind not to see the chickens.

Haven’t heard whether feathers flew during the debate!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: This is a real peck-le.

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 30th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

This week on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, the hosts talk with author Stephanie Hubach about a biblical perspective on disability. Here’s a preview:

CHELSEA BOES: Our little girl was diagnosed with autism last spring. And I had so much cultural baggage about what autism is. What I'm learning is that from I think my whole life, I've judged a person's value based on their social facility. Now I have this little girl who I love so much, and because she has autism, she has learned to talk a little more slowly, knowing that God made her that way, and that he didn't make a mistake. It is like such a bedrock of life giving this to go back to. But that being said, like the grief process is real, and it is kind of long.

STEPHANIE HUBACH: I think what's important for people to recognize about that is you're you're not grieving the fact that your daughter is your daughter. Yes. What parents are grieving with the diagnosis of disability with their child is the fact that they're, they're now on a pathway of a life they didn't expect, right? I have a friend that says just because my life is harder doesn't mean it's worse, right? And I think that's really insightful. And so, so yeah, that's grieving the loss of expectations. Because we all carry these expectations, when you're when you're pregnant, expecting child you have these unspoken expectations about what life is going to look like in five or 10 or 20 years, right. And the Lord just goes, nope, we're going we're making a hard right hand turn here and I am going to do amazing things, but you have to hold on for the ride. And the other thing is I'm going to take that yardstick by which you measure human value and I'm going to snap it in half over my knee, and I'm going to give you mine.

REICHARD: You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently today wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

BROWN: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: o-r-t-h-o-g-r-a-p-h-y, orthography. That’s a fancy way to say spelling. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is underway in National Harbor, Maryland. The finals air on ION tonight.

WORLD reporter Jenny Rough talked with some former contestants.

MUSIC: [Maxixe dance]

CORRIE LOEFFLER: There’s a word I remember learning when I was a kid. Maxixe.

JENNY ROUGH: Corrie Loeffler is the executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She’s worked for the bee for 18 years.

LOEFFLER: M-a-x-i-x-e. It’s a Brazilian ballroom dance. And I was like, I’ve got to see what this dance is.

In the mid-1990s, when she was in middle school, she competed as a contestant three years in a row. She says studying for the bee was illuminating.

LOEFFLER: I grew up in this small town in central California. Not a ton of worldly experiences but if I opened up the dictionary, I could learn about all kinds of things that piqued my curiosity. Your curiosity can take you anywhere with just learning some words for a spelling bee.

The spelling bee competition starts in local classrooms. Students can enter through eighth grade. At first, everyone studies the same initial list of 4,000 words. Regional competitions then narrow down the contestants. This year, 245 kids ages 8 to 15 made it to the national round. Here, at the preliminary stage, the bee adds more study words, bringing the list to 4,500.

LOEFFLER: But after that, when you get to the quarterfinals and beyond, it’s the entire dictionary that they’re responsible for.

Merriam-Webster unabridged, which has about half a million entries in it.

LOEFFLER: That’s why we’re able to have such a challenging competition.

Loeffler says one word is a favorite for a lot spellers:

LOEFFLER: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

Hawaii’s state fish.

LOEFFLER: Sounds like a whole roller coaster of a word. But really if you know the sounds that you’d typically use in words from Hawaiian, anybody could spell that word.

That’s why kids often ask the judges to give them the language of origin before they attempt to spell a word.

LOEFFLER: To have the most success, what you need to do is learn your roots, your Greek and Latin roots, and learn language patterns, so the sounds that letters make if they are used in certain languages.

For example, the 'k sound:

LOEFFLER: So a 'k in Hawaiian isn’t going to be a c or a c-h, it’s going to be a k.

That’s the key to the bee: roots and language of origin. Here’s an example from yesterday’s semi-finals:

AIDEN: Phaeoplast. Is this coming from the Greek phaios meaning dusky?

JUDGE: Yes.

AIDEN: Is this coming from the plastós meaning mold?

JUDGE: You’re on the right track.

AIDEN: Phaeoplast. p-h-a-e-o-p-l-a-s-t

JUDGE 2: That is correct.

Because English borrows so many words from other languages, mastering English is no easy task. It’s full of inconsistent pronunciations. Like the four-letter sequence o-u-g-h, which has at least six in American English: cough, tough, bough, dough, sought, through.

Even so, the bee tries to steer kids away from rote memorization and instead aims to help kids understand the actual meaning of words. To encourage that, the bee added in a new challenge in 2021: an on-stage oral vocabulary question.

LOEFFLER: A kid goes up, they get their first spelling word, and if they get that right they immediately get their vocabulary question.

JUDGE: Your word is quixotic. Someone described as quixotic tends to be (a) idealistic; (b) pessimistic; (c) sarcastic. 

ALIYAH: (a) idealistic.

JUDGE 2: That is correct.

ANCHOR: Don Quixote dreamed the impossible dream.

If they miss, they’re out. But if they know their roots and language patterns—

LOEFFLER: A lot of times they can figure out what it means even if they’ve never seen the word before.

Blake Giddens won the national bee in 1983.

BLAKE GIDDENS: The word that I got at the end that the other kid missed at the end is ratatouille.

SKINNER: Ratatouille? They must be joking.

Ratatouille, a stew made of leftover vegetables. In 1983, it was an obscure French word. Now, kids know it from the Pixar film about a cartoon rat who becomes a chef.

Today, Giddens works as an engineer. But he’s still involved in the bee, most recently the pronouncer for the Fairfax County regional bee in Virginia.

For the national competition, pronouncers rely on many tools—like headphones or recordings that can be played back to make sure they can hear the difference between similar sounding letters, like d and b.

GIDDENS: They put a lot of effort into making it as fair as possible.

Giddens says the purpose of the bee is multifaceted: love of language; camaraderie among the families who participate. And this:

GIDDENS: One of the beauties of understanding language is knowing the right term to describe a certain situation.

Giddens says mastering the English language enables us to properly articulate our thoughts.

GIDDENS: You know, I was always a fan of William F. Buckley, and a lot of people thought he was ostentatious because he used these big words. But in reality I think he was looking for the exact word that described what he was trying to say.

Despite the manipulation of language in our culture today, this competition offers a glimmer of hope that kids are still learning that words matter.

JUDGE: Drusen. It’s from German.

ANCHOR: Could be a temptation to add a letter here. Thinking it may have been Anglicized from German. 

JUDGE: Drusen is a plural noun. Drusen means small, transparent bodies usually separated into thin layers, sometimes appearing behind the retina of the eye.

ARYAN: d-r-u-s-i-n-e. Drusen.

AUDIO: [Bell]

JUDGE: Drusen is spelled d-r-u-s-e-n.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough. And yes, that’s R-o-u-g-h.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 30th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas has some advice for former President Trump on how to win the November election.

CAL THOMAS: In August 1968, Richard Nixon achieved what The New York Times called “the greatest reversal of fortune in American political history.” Times columnist James Reston went further, calling it “the greatest comeback since Lazarus.” This from a newspaper that hated Nixon, as they now hate today’s Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

How did he do it? And could Trump learn anything from Nixon’s seeming transformation?

First, the parallels between Nixon and Trump are striking. Nixon, like Trump, believed America was in bad shape. In 1968, crime, the war in Vietnam, and the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had depressed the country. The Democratic National Convention meeting in Chicago featured riots in the streets that shocked voters watching on TV. Many argued those riots helped Nixon win the presidency. Some of those issues, especially crime and social unrest, prevail today.

What did it take for Nixon to win? Leading up to ’68, Nixon was often seen as dour, uncomfortable around others, and at times awkward and insincere. But the “New Nixon” no longer scowled, and his hair had grown longer (possibly a nod to the hippie era). He also smiled more than in his 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy.

This year’s first debate between Trump and President Biden is scheduled for June 27. Trump should consider presenting a “New Trump.” Critics might say that’s like asking a leopard to change its spots. But assuming he can change, how might it work?

Trump should stop referring to Biden as a “crook.” Stick to the issues people care about – the open border, inflation, wars, and school choice. He could propose defunding universities that tolerated antisemitic demonstrations, revising the tax code to make it fairer and flatter, and reducing the $34 trillion national debt.

On this last point, Trump is vulnerable because he added $8.4 trillion to the debt. Trump should promise to create a bipartisan commission that would recommend to Congress ways to reduce the debt.

Biden has few policy achievements, so he will likely engage in personal attacks about the “threat to democracy” posed by Trump. If Trump occasionally displays soft answers, he can duck Biden’s punches and confuse the often confused President. Recall Ronald Reagan’s line to President Jimmy Carter during their 1980 debate: “There you go again.”

Trump had some good lines in his speech to residents of The Bronx last week. He spoke of reducing crime, cleaning up subways, lowering taxes, and creating more jobs. He didn’t mention how those promises would be paid for, or fulfilled.

I’m not sure Trump can reinvent himself in time to make a difference, if at all. He seems comfortable as the “old Trump.” But like Reagan, Trump is experienced in television and that medium allows for new looks, even if they are not genuine. That’s the purpose of makeup. Even the “New Nixon” turned out to be a cover for the old and real Nixon.

Can Trump transform himself into a “new Trump”? If so, whether real or fake, he could upset the political dynamic of the debates and win the election.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with Katie McCoy. And, two films from 1939. We’ll revisit Stagecoach and The Wizard of Oz. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” —1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

Go now in grace and peace.

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