Analysis

Shortly after 6pm on Saturday, a would-be assassin took aim at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump and two others were injured and one person was killed before the Secret Service shot and killed the alleged gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks was a registered Republican but gave $15 to a progressive Political Action Committee in 2021. Law enforcement has yet to identify a motive or an ideology.

For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate has been the target of an assassination plot. How might Saturday's events affect an already divided America?

Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses what history can teach us about this moment.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet over 10 percent of people – nearly 40 million – live in poverty. It's something we see, say, if we live near a tent encampment. And it's also something we feel. More than a third of people in the U.S. say they're worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage. Medical bills and layoffs can change a family's economic status almost overnight.

These issues are on the minds of Democrats and Republicans, city-dwellers and rural households. And in an election year, they're likely to be a major factor when people cast their votes for President.

In this episode, we talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and sociologist Matthew Desmond, whose book Poverty, By America, helps explain why poverty persists in the United States, how it's holding all of us back, and what it means to be a poverty abolitionist.

Polls – and NPR's own reporting – tell a story of many Americans fatigued by the upcoming presidential race. They're not satisfied with the choice between two men who have both already held the office of President.

But American allies and partners are watching the race intently, including South Korea, Japan, Ukraine and Israel. The fates of those countries are closely tied to whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden ends up sitting in the White House next year.

The NPR correspondents who cover those countries, Anthony Kuhn in South Korea, Joanna Kakissis in Ukraine, and Daniel Estrin in Israel, discuss the stakes each of those countries have in the outcome of America's presidential election.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

We are just weeks away from one of the biggest political events of the election campaign season: the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Former President Donald Trump is, of course, the party's presumptive nominee, but he's yet to announce his running mate.

The list is long, but the candidates all have one thing in common — they're being considered because they could help Trump get elected in November.

NPR's Franco Ordoñez and Jeongyoon Han break down which candidates are rising to the top and why it matters.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

America is facing two very different futures on the world stage after November.

If former President Trump wins, he's promised to fundamentally re-evaluate the NATO alliance, reshape global trade and overhaul the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies.

He's largely avoided explaining how he'd handle the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, yet says he can settle the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, if President Biden wins, he's signaled his commitment to fight global threats to peace and freedom, and he's vowed to continue to help Ukraine and Israel fight in their respective wars.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.