WOODEN PLANKS, SCAFFOLDING and iron fencing is blocking the view of the White House for tourists on Pennsylvania Avenue right now.
The construction of the inauguration stand getting underway is yet another sign that the US presidential election is drawing to a close.
Voting day is less than a month away, but the inauguration will take place in January.
A White House staffer explained that the construction work starts early so as to avoid the cold snap this winter.
As the polling day gets closer, it is no surprise that there is wall-to-wall coverage of the US presidential election across all the US television networks.
Depending on which channel you watch, you’ll be given a different spin on the campaign trail.
The latest poll carried out by The New York Times/Siena College puts the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on 49% of the vote against 46% for the Republican nominee Donald Trump. It’s all to play for.
Both candidates are spending their time in the swing States, in a bid to shore up support.
The Democrats had somewhat of a surge post Biden stepping aside, but the narrative is that it is stalling now.
Which is why they rolled out the big guns on the campaign trail this week with former US President Barack Obama and also some celebrities like Julia Roberts.
Speaking to voters in Washington DC this week, where Taoiseach Simon Harris was visiting US president Joe Biden, the majority said the election was on a knife edge, with no one able to call which way it will go.
Speaking to one White House staffer from Pennsylvania, they said the area is President Joe Biden’s home turf, but that they see divisions emerging. It is no surprise then that Trump paid a visit to the area this week in a bid to win more votes in Northeast Pennsylvania where the president was raised.
Taoiseach Simon Harris dodged a question from a Georgetown University student this week on what a Trump administration would mean for Ireland.
He said he had to reach for his “diplomatic answer”, stating that the Irish government has worked well with all US administrations in the past and whoever wins, the Irish government would do so again.
However, while Irish politicians are wary of speaking for or against either candidate in the race, as it has bitten some Taoisigh and ministers in the past, some senior sources state that “everyone should get on their hands and knees and pray Kamala gets in”, citing in particular what a Trump administration would mean for the war in Ukraine.
Though the Taoiseach was diplomatic in his response to the student’s question this week, unprompted, the Taoiseach said he wanted to make a point about Ukraine.
Taoiseach said he was conscious that this election will of course be consequential for the citizens of the United States, but remarked that it will also be consequential for other nations such as Ukraine.
Ireland will “work very closely with whoever leads the US administration”, he added, citing the importance of countries respecting the sovereignty and independence of others.
Hurricane Milton curtailed the Taoiseach’s working programme in Washington DC due to Biden having to be all-hands-on-deck as the hurricane made landfall in Florida.
While weather might somewhat of an obsession for Irish people, it is rarely political.
But this week, the hurricane has caused a political storm in the US.
Trump made complaints about the federal response to the two hurricanes that ravaged large areas of the US southeast, seeking to turn the storms to his political advantage ahead of the November election.
The former president spoke at the Detroit Economic Club, shortly after his Democratic opponent virtually attended a briefing in the White House Situation Room about emergency efforts in Hurricane Milton’s wake.
The US president repeatedly condemned Trump for spreading misinformation about federal assistance available to victims. Trump falsely claimed that such assistance is capped at $750 dollars when in reality, it is just a starter fund to meet people’s immediate needs, with larger funds to be paid out thereafter.
“That 750 dollars that they’re talking about, Mr Trump and all those other people know it’s a lie to suggest that’s all they’re going to get,” Biden said on Thursday.
“It’s just bizarre. They got to stop this. They’re being so damn un-American with the way they’re talking about this stuff.”
Though storm weather rarely becomes a political fight back home, there is one parallel that could be drawn between the US election and the upcoming Irish election, whenever that will be.
Aside from there also being a Harris in the race at home, the cost-of-living is the number one issue in the US election and is sure to be in the Irish election too.
In Washington DC, where the Taoiseach was visiting the US president this week, a weekly shop can cost a family hundreds of dollars, with a dozen eggs costing $8 and an apple (not an organic one for that matter), costing $2.50. For one apple.
A survey in August found that 50% of people in the US said the cost of living is the top concern for their country.
And this is coming up on the campaign trail. Kamala Harris conceded that the cost of living in America “is still just too high” and pledged to put the middle class at the heart of the US economy.
Meanwhile, Trump has pledged tax cuts and tariffs in a bid to help workers with rising costs.
The Irish government is also contending with the crisis.
It has decided to throw money at the problem, with lump sum payments coming to families before and after Christmas, in what some opposition members say is a bid to buy the electorate.
The government acknowledges that while inflation has fallen back, prices have not and it is being felt in people’s’ pockets. Irish political eyes might be looking over the pond to how the cost-of-living crisis impacts the vote stateside, with a view of ensuring they don’t have a misstep here, whenever an election is called.
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