Washington:

Indian-American businessman-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy had predicted some eight months ago that incumbent President Joe Biden would not be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he decided to give up running for re-election as president of the United States and endorsed his deputy Kamala Harris to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

“Best way to predict the future: just follow the incentives. It’s shocking how precisely right you can be, right down to the exact timing,” Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old Republican, said in a social media post along with the video interview with Fox News last November, soon after Biden announced his decision.

Best way to predict the future: just follow the incentives. It’s shocking how precisely right you can be, right down to the exact timing. pic.twitter.com/Xz5CBC8XxW

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

“Yeah, all his predictions have come true,” Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk said in response. “Wish it weren’t so,” Ramaswamy responded.

Yeah, all his predictions have come true

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2024

Wish it weren’t so. https://t.co/upKkCY2iY2

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

In his interview with Fox News, Ramaswamy had said: “I think that the reality is the managerial class around Biden has lost their use for him. This has been obvious to me since last year to play out the incentives. He is not the strongest candidate they can put up. And these people, they have stopped at nothing to keep Donald J Trump out of office,” he said.

The Indian-American, who then was the Republican presidential candidate in the primaries along with former president Donald Trump, said that two candidates – Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama – were possibly to be picked by the Democrats.

“Let’s give credit where credit is due. For almost a year one man has been saying “Biden won’t be the Democratic nominee” and predicting a last-minute blindside. People called him crazy,” Tristane Tate, a social media influencer, said, applauding Ramaswamy for his prediction coming true. Ramaswamy had made a similar prediction during one of the Republican presidential debates.

He also posted a compilation of videos of his predictions and said, “The anatomy of how a “conspiracy theory” became reality, in just 18 months.” 

The anatomy of how a “conspiracy theory” became reality, in just 18 months. pic.twitter.com/yU4wlnJ6oK

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 21, 2024

“‘I remember corporate media reporters sneering and laughing when Vivek Ramaswamy made this point in the debate. They’re not laughing now!” Raheem Kassam, a journalist, said on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of U.S. President Joe Biden, right, with Vice President Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: AP

With U.S. President Joe Biden ending his reelection bid and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats now must navigate a shift that is unprecedented this late in an election year.

Democrats are set to hold their convention in Chicago on August 19-22. What was supposed to be a coronation for Mr. Biden now becomes an open contest in which nearly 4,700 delegates will be responsible for picking a new standard-bearer to challenge Republican Donald Trump in the fall.

The path ahead is neither easy nor obvious, even with Mr. Biden endorsing Harris. There are unanswered questions about logistics, money and political fallout.

Can Biden redirect his delegates?

Mr. Biden won every State primary and caucus earlier this year and only lost the territory of American Samoa. At least 3,896 delegates had been pledged to support him.

Current party rules do not permit Mr. Biden to pass them to another candidate. Politically, though, his endorsement is likely to be influential.

What could happen at the convention?

With Biden stepping aside, Democrats technically start with an open convention. But realistically, his endorsement pushes Democrats into murky territory.

The immediate burden is on Ms. Harris to solidify support across almost 4,000 delegates from the states, territories and District of Columbia, plus more than 700 so-called super-delegates that include party leaders, certain elected officials and former presidents and vice presidents.

Will anyone challenge Ms. Harris?

Even before Biden announced his decision, Democrats floated California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as potential contenders in addition to Harris.

Yet some Democrats argued publicly, and many privately, that it would be a no-brainer to elevate the first woman, first Black woman and first person of south Asian descent to hold national office.

Given how important Black voters — and Black women especially — were to Mr. Biden’s nomination and his choice of Harris as running mate, it would be risky, to say the least, for Democrats to pass her over for a white nominee.

Democrats already faced historical headwinds before Mr. Biden’s withdrawal. Mr. Newsom and Mr. Whitmer, both of whom are white, and any other Democrat would also have to weigh the short-term and long-term benefits of challenging Harris now versus preserving goodwill for a future presidential primary.

Yet, fair or not, Ms. Harris also has not been viewed as an especially beloved or empowered vice president. The best scenario for her and Democrats is to quickly shore up support and project a united front.

Democrats could even go forward with their plans for an early virtual vote — a move they’d planned to make sure Mr. Biden was selected ahead of Ohio’s general election ballot deadline.

What happens to Biden’s campaign money?

Mr. Biden’s campaign recently reported $91 million cash on hand. Allied Democratic campaign committees brought the total at his disposal to more than $240 million. Campaign finance experts agree generally that Ms. Harris could control all those funds since the campaign was set up in her name as well as Mr. Biden’s.

If Democrats do nominate someone other than Ms. Harris, party accounts could still benefit the nominee, but the Biden-Harris account would have more restrictions. For example, legal experts say it could become an independent expenditure political action committee but not simply transfer its balance to a different nominee.

How will a vice-presidential nomination work?

The vice presidential nomination is always a separate convention vote. In routine years, the convention ratifies the choice of the nominee. If Ms. Harris closes ranks quickly, she could name her choice and have the delegates ratify it. In an extended fight, though, the vice presidency could become part of horse-trading — again, a return to conventions of an earlier era.

Can Republicans keep Harris off state ballots?

Any curveball during a U.S. presidential campaign is certain to produce a flurry of State and federal lawsuits in this hyper-partisan era, and some conservatives have threatened just that.

State laws, though, typically do not prescribe how parties choose their nominees for president. And some GOP figures – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey — have worked already this year to ensure their party did not deny Democrats’ routine ballot access.

File picture of U.S. President Joe Biden
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump, leaving the presidential race in uncharted territory. He also announced his endorsement of Vice-President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

ALSO READ: U.S. presidential elections LIVE updates: Joe Biden drops out of race

Mr. Biden, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Mr. Biden wrote.

By dropping his reelection bid, he clears the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to run at the top of the ticket, the first Black woman to do so in the country’s history.

Endorses Harris

Mr. Biden, 81, in a separate post on X, said that he would support and endorse Ms. Harris to be the Democratic party nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” he wrote.

It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge Ms. Harris for the party’s nomination, who was widely seen as the pick for many party officials — or whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations.

Pressure to step down

Mr. Biden’s announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his shockingly poor performance in a televised debate against Republican rival Mr. Trump, who is 78.

Mr. Biden’s failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public spotlight away from Mr. Trump’s performance, in which he made a string of false statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Mr. Biden’s fitness for another 4-year term.

Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview, shrugging off Democrats’ worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, and saying he would be fine losing to Mr. Trump if he knew he’d “gave it my all.”

His gaffes at a NATO summit — invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and calling Harris “Vice President Trump” — further stoked anxieties.

Only four days before Sunday’s announcement, Mr. Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19 for a third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas. More than one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for him to quit the race.

Mr. Biden’s historic move — the first sitting president to give up his party’s nomination for re-election since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 — leaves his replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign. 

New York:

Actor George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s leading fundraisers, on Wednesday made an emotional and heartfelt plea for President Joe Biden to end his faltering reelection campaign.

Clooney — a member of the Hollywood elite that provides key support to the Democrats — joined a growing list of public figures calling for Biden, 81, to step aside after his terrible debate performance against Donald Trump last month.

“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote in the New York Times. “I consider him a friend, and I believe in him… But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.”

A self-described “lifelong Democrat,” Clooney co-hosted a star-studded fundraiser with Biden in Los Angeles only last month featuring former president Barack Obama.

The Biden campaign said that the event brought in a record $28 million.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote, referencing a famous hot-mic clip from Biden’s vice presidency.

“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney said — a direct challenge to Biden’s claim that his poor debate showing was a one-off.

“The dam has broken” on Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for Biden to withdraw, Clooney said, asking more come forward.

“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside.”

The Oscar-winner brushed aside worries that Biden’s exit would create chaos four months before an election in which the Democrats hope to keep Trump from power, and did not endorse a replacement candidate.

The party should hear from contenders such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and others, “then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out,” he wrote.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Biden administration on Monday designated 31 technology hubs spread across 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Biden administration on Monday designated 31 technology hubs spread across 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the industries that are concentrated in these areas.

“We’re going to invest in critical technologies like biotechnology, critical materials, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing — so the U.S. will lead the world again in innovation across the board,” President Joe Biden said. “I truly believe this country is about to take off.”

The tech hubs are the result of a process that the Commerce Department launched in May to distribute a total of $500 million in grants to cities.

The $500 million came from a $10 billion authorization in last year’s CHIPS and Science Act to stimulate investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotech. It’s an attempt to expand tech investment that is largely concentrated around a few U.S. cities — Austin, Texas; Boston; New York; San Francisco; and Seattle — to the rest of the country.

“I have to say, in my entire career in public service, I have never seen as much interest in any initiative than this one,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters during a Sunday conference call to preview the announcement. Her department received 400 applications, she said.

“No matter where I go or who I meet with — CEOs, governors, senators, congresspeople, university presidents — everyone wants to tell me about their application and how excited they are,” said Raimondo.

The program, formally the Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program, ties into the president’s economic argument that people should be able to find good jobs where they live and that opportunity should be spread across the country, rather than be concentrated. The White House has sought to elevate that message and highlight Biden’s related policies as the Democratic president undertakes his 2024 reelection bid.

The 31 tech hubs reach Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Montana, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Virginia, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, Maryland, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, Louisiana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New York, Nevada, Missouri, Oregon, Vermont, Ohio, Maine, Washington and Puerto Rico.

President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Washington. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have carried out an unprecedented, multifront attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United States on Saturday condemned the attacks by “Hamas terrorists” against Israel and vowed to ensure the key U.S. ally has the means to defend itself.

President Joe Biden described the assault as “a terrible tragedy on a human level” and said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to underline his support.

“I told him the United States stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House.

“In my administration, support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.

“We’ll make sure that they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves.”

As the attacks threatened to trigger a wider conflict, Biden also warned “this is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching.”

Biden stressed that Israel — which the United States has supplied with billions of dollars of arms — has “a right to defend itself” after the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas launched air, sea and land strikes.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed Washington’s commitment, saying “over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs.”

Meanwhile, top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken spoke with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas — whose West Bank-based Fatah movement is a rival to Hamas — and “called on all leadership in the region to condemn” the attack on Israel.

Former president Donald Trump weighed in, blaming Biden, without evidence, for indirectly funding the attacks.

“These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force,” Trump said in a statement.

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration.”

Trump’s allegations reflected Republican claims that $6 billion released last month to Iran as part of a prisoner exchange deal was used to fund the Hamas attack.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said on social media that “this is a shameful lie in every respect, at a time when both parties should be totally united in supporting Israel’s defense.”

The money “can only be used for verifiable purchases of humanitarian needs like food & medicine,” Bates added, in a fierce pushback against the claims.

Israel normalized relations decades ago with neighboring Egypt and Jordan and in 2020 added three more Arab states to the list — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — in what Trump considered his towering foreign policy achievement.

The so-called “Abraham Accords” also included sweeteners from Trump, including a promise to sell jets to the United Arab Emirates.

“We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible,” Trump, who plans to stand against Biden in the 2024 election, said.

Before Saturday’s assault, Biden had been hoping to transform the Middle East — and score a pre-election diplomatic victory — by securing recognition of the Jewish state by Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Saturday that “this unprecedented and brutal attack by Hamas is not only supported by Iran, it was designed to stop peace efforts between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“A peace agreement between those two nations would be a nightmare for Iran and Hamas.”

“It would serve Israel and the world well to respond to this outrage by launching an operation that will destroy the Hamas organization — not just contain it,” he added.

Hamas is backed by Iran, a foe of Israel, with Iran’s supreme leader declaring he was “proud” of Saturday’s attacks.

Biden has had recently rocky relations with Netanyahu, publicly criticizing him for overhauling Israel’s judiciary, a step seen by opponents as undermining democracy.

U.S. President Joe Biden joins striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line outside the GM’s Willow Run Distribution Center, in Belleville, Wayne County, Michigan on U.S., September 26, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Joe Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to stand on a picket line on September 26, joining striking auto workers in Michigan in a bold pitch for blue collar votes against likely election rival Donald Trump.

Wearing a United Auto Workers (UAW) union baseball cap, the Democrat used a bullhorn to tell red-shirted employees they deserved “a hell of a lot more than what you’re getting.”

His short but symbolic trip came a day before Republican former president Mr. Trump visits Michigan, the historic heart of the U.S. car industry and a key battleground for the 2024 election campaign.

“They’re doing incredibly well and guess what, you should be doing incredibly well too,” Mr. Biden said to cheers from placard-waving union members.

Sporting a blue zip-up top with a presidential seal, Mr. Biden urged automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis to “step up for us.”

Mr. Biden then shook hands with union workers, closely watched by Secret Service agents, and agreed when asked if employees should get a 40% increase.

“It meant a lot,” said Carolyn Nippa, 51, an inventory control employee at the GM plant after she fist-bumped the U.S. president.

“It’s very historic.”

‘Stand up with workers’

The autoworkers strike that began on September 15 has increasingly become a political football for Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump as they head for a probable rematch next year.

Mr. Biden’s trip was designed to trumpet his pro-union credentials amid growing concerns about his poll ratings, his age and his struggles to get his economic message across.

The White House played up the historic element, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressing it was the “first time a sitting president has visited a picket line in modern times.”

Mr. Biden’s trip also went down well with unions, whose support was crucial when he beat Mr. Trump in 2020.

The UAW’s outspoken chief Shawn Fain, who invited Mr. Biden to Detroit, greeted him on the tarmac and rode with him to the picket line in the presidential limousine dubbed “The Beast.”

“Our president chose to stand up with workers,” Mr. Fain, whose union is pushing the car makers for better pay and conditions, told the crowd.

Mr. Trump meanwhile is hoping to woo back working-class voters, who propelled the right-wing populist to the White House in 2016 on the back of his promise to restore American industry, but then largely flipped to Mr. Biden.

The wealthy property tycoon’s own links with the unions are more difficult, and the car parts plant Mr. Trump is visiting on the other side of Detroit on Wednesday is non-union.

“We would not consider that standing in solidarity if you are going to a non-union shop while a strike is going on,” said a UAW source.

‘Stick with it’ 

Instead, Mr. Trump has focused on attacking what he called Mr. Biden’s “draconian” push to fund a shift to more environmentally friendly electric vehicles, saying it is driving jobs to China.

“Crooked Joe should be ashamed to show his face before these hardworking Americans he is stabbing in the back,” the 77-year-old said in a statement Tuesday, using his usual epithet for the president.

Mr. Trump, who’s skipping a Republican candidates’ debate on Wednesday to focus on Michigan instead, also accused Mr. Biden of copying his plans to visit the state.

Mr. Biden says his push on electric vehicles is part of a plan to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and lead a global race to develop green technology.

For all that, his “Bidenomics” message is failing to get through to voters.

An ABC News-Washington Post poll sent shivers up Democrats’ spines on Sunday when it showed Mr. Trump beating Mr. Biden 52% to 42% in a head-to-head match-up.

And while other polls have put them roughly even, Mr. Biden’s approval ratings remain stubbornly low, particularly on the economy where high prices are blotting out good jobs numbers.

But Mr. Biden’s message to doubters appears to be the same as it was to the striking workers in Michigan: “Folks, stick with it.”

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers a statement on allegations surrounding U.S. President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden as the House of Representatives returns from its summer break facing a looming deadline to avoid a government shutdown while spending talks continue on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on September 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on September 12 called for an impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden encouraged by his party’s right flank — a move certain to further divide lawmakers as they struggle to passing legislation to avoid a government shutdown.

“I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters.

Many in Mr. McCarthy’s party were infuriated when the House, then controlled by Democrats, twice impeached Republican President Donald Trump — in 2019 and 2021 — though he was acquitted both times in the Senate.

Mr. Biden, who defeated Mr. Trump in the 2020 election, is seeking re-election next year. Republicans, who now narrowly control the House, have accused Mr. Biden of profiting while he served as vice president from 2009 to 2017 from his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures, though they have not presented substantiation.

A former business associate of the younger Biden told an House hearing that Hunter Biden sold the “illusion” of access to power while his father was vice president, according to a transcript released last month.

The White House has said there is no basis for an investigation and Mr. Biden has mocked Republicans over a possible impeachment.

Democrats have sought to portray Republican impeachment talk as an effort to distract public attention from the legal woes of Mr. Trump, who faces four separate criminal indictments while running for his party’s nomination to face Mr. Biden in the 2024 U.S. election.

Mr. Trump has pressed Republicans to try to remove Mr. Biden from office. Several hard-right Republicans have said they will not vote for must-pass spending bills unless Mr. McCarthy greenlights an impeachment inquiry.

The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to impeach federal officials including the president for treason, bribery and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.” A president can be removed from office if the House approves articles of impeachment by a simple majority and the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority to convict after holding a trial.

Any Biden impeachment effort would be unlikely to succeed. Even if the Republican-controlled House votes to impeach Mr. Biden — an uncertain prospect, given the party’s narrow 222-212 vote margin — it would almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Mr. Trump is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He was acquitted both times after trials in the Senate thanks to votes by his fellow Republicans that prevented the chamber from achieving the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

In his first impeachment, the House in 2019 charged Mr. Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after he asked Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden and his son on unsubstantiated corruption accusations. In his second impeachment, the House impeached him in 2021 on a charge of inciting an insurrection following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

The first impeachment sought to remove him from office. The second, with a trial held after he left office, sought to disqualify Mr. Trump from ever again holding the presidency.

Mr. Trump, as he has done with many investigations into his actions, called both impeachments politically motivated witch hunts.

Mr. Biden in July mocked Republican lawmakers threatening to impeach him.

“Republicans may have to find something else to criticise me for now that inflation is coming down. Maybe they’ll decide to impeach me because it’s coming down. I don’t know. I’d love that one,” Mr. Biden said at the time.

U.S. President Joe Biden opened a brief visit to Vietnam on Sunday by telling the country’s leadership that the two nations have a chance to shape the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.

Mr. Biden said he hoped progress could be made on climate, the economy and other issues during his 24-hour visit.

“Vietnam and the U.S. are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,” Mr. Biden told Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, during the public portion of their meeting at party headquarters.

Mr. Trọng agreed that their meeting presented an “excellent opportunity“ to expand bilateral ties. He thanked Mr. Biden for inviting him to visit Washington soon.

Vietnam is elevating its relationship with the U.S. to the status of being a comprehensive strategic partner, which one of Biden’s top national security advisers said represents Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership.

Other countries that Vietnam has extended the designation to include China and Russia. Elevating the U.S. to the same status suggests that Vietnam wants to hedge its friendships as U.S. and European companies look for alternatives to Chinese factories.

Mr. Biden, who arrived in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon, said last month at a fundraiser in Salt Lake City that Vietnam doesn’t want a defense alliance with the U.S., “but they want relationships because they want China to know that they’re not alone” and can choose its own partners. The president decided to tack a visit to Vietnam on to his trip to India for the Group of 20 summit that wrapped up Sunday.

With China’s economic slowdown and President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of political power, Mr. Biden sees an opportunity to bring more nations — including Vietnam and Cambodia — into America’s orbit.

“We find ourselves in a situation where all of these changes around the world are taking place,” Mr. Biden explained last month about Vietnam. “We have an opportunity, if we’re smart, to change the dynamic.”

Mr. Biden was welcomed with a pomp-filled ceremony outside the mustard-colored Presidential Palace. Scores of schoolchildren lined the steps waving small U.S. and Vietnam flags and Mr. Biden watched from an elevated review stand as high-stepping members of the military marched past. The president waved to the children before he got into his limousine to go to Communist Party headquarters to meet with Trong.

The president and Trong expressed mutual happiness over seeing each other again after last meeting some eight years ago in Washington, said Mr. Biden, who was vice president at the time.

Trong sought to flatter Mr. Biden, who faces persistent questions at home about being 80 years old and running for reelection next year.

“You have nary aged a day, and I would say you look even better than before,” Trong said. “I would say every feature of you Mr. President is complementing your image.” Mr. Biden chuckled in response.

Earlier Sunday, Jon Finer, Mr. Biden’s chief deputy national security adviser, said the elevated status represents Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership.

“It’s important to make clear that this is more than words,” Finer told reporters aboard Mr. Biden’s flight to Hanoi. “In a system like Vietnam, it’s a signal to their entire government, their entire bureaucracy about the depth and cooperation and alignment with another country that is possible.”

Finer noted a five-decade arc in U.S.-Vietnam relations, from conflict during the Vietnam War to normalization and Vietnam’s status as a top trading partner that also shares Washington’s concerns over security in the South China Sea.

“We will be deepening that relationship through this visit,” he added.

Finer also addressed reports that Vietnam was pursuing a deal to buy weapons from Russia, even as it sought deeper ties to the United States. Finer acknowledged Vietnam’s lengthy military relationship with Russia and said the U.S. continues to work with Vietnam and other countries with similar ties to Russia to try to limit their interactions with a nation the U.S. accuses of committing war crimes and violating international law with its aggression in Ukraine.

U.S. trade with Vietnam has already accelerated since 2019. But there are limits to how much further it can progress without improvements to the country’s infrastructure, its workers’ skills and its governance. Nor has increased trade automatically put the Vietnamese economy on an upward trajectory.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that the CEOs she talks with rank Vietnam highly as a place to diversify supply chains that before the pandemic had been overly dependent on China. Raimondo has been trying to broaden those supply chains through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an initiative Mr. Biden launched last year.

“Whether it’s Vietnam or Malaysia, Indonesia, India, companies are really taking a hard look at those countries as places to do more business,” Raimondo said. “It is also true that they need to improve their workforce, housing, infrastructure and, I’d say, transparency in government operations.”

Vietnam’s economic growth slipped during the first three months of 2023. Its exporters faced higher costs and weaker demand as high inflation worldwide has hurt the market for consumer goods.

Still, U.S. imports of Vietnamese goods have nearly doubled since 2019 to $127 billion annually, according to the Census Bureau. It is unlikely that Vietnam, with its population of 100 million, can match the scale of Chinese manufacturing. In 2022, China, with 1.4 billion people, exported four times as many goods to the U.S. as did Vietnam.

There is also evidence that China is still central to the economies of many countries in the Indo-Pacific. A new analysis from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that countries in IPEF received on average more than 30% of their imports from China and sent nearly 20% of their exports to China. This dependence has increased sharply since 2010.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan saw an opening to broaden the U.S. relationship with Vietnam when one of its top officials, Lê Hoài Trung, visited Washington on June 29.

After talking with Trung, Sullivan walked back to his office and decided after consulting with his team to issue a letter to the Vietnamese government proposing that the two countries take their trade and diplomatic relations to the highest possible level, according to an administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the details.

Sullivan picked the issue back up on July 13 while traveling with Mr. Biden in Helsinki, speaking by phone with Trọng, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

At a fundraiser at a barn in Maine a few weeks later, Mr. Biden went public with the deal.

“I’ve gotten a call from the head of Vietnam, desperately wants to meet me when I go to the G-20,” Mr. Biden said. “He wants to elevate us to a major partner, along with Russia and China. What do you think that’s about?”

U.S. President Joe Biden will follow the COVID-19 guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during his visit to India for the G20 Summit and his trip to Vietnam, the White House has said.

The announcement on Tuesday came after First Lady Jill Biden, 72, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. President Biden, 80, was tested for the virus on Monday and Tuesday following his wife’s positive test, but his results were negative.

The White House said the president has tested negative twice and there is no change in his travel plans for India and Vietnam later this week.

Responding to questions from reporters, it said the president, however, is taking all the necessary precautions and following standard procedures as per the CDC guidelines.

“What I can tell you is that the president certainly is going to test on a regular cadence determined by his physician. Of course, all travellers, including the president, will test before travelling to India,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Tuesday

“So, that is certainly something that the president will do. As I mentioned, he’s following CDC guidelines,” she said.

Mr. Biden will travel to India on September 7 to participate in the G20 Summit and will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8 on the sidelines of the historic meeting, the White House announced on Friday.

In its capacity as the current president of G20, India is hosting the annual summit of the influential grouping in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.

Ahead of his trip, reporters asked Mr. Biden on Sunday whether he was looking forward to his visits to India and Vietnam.

“Yes, I am,” Mr. Biden replied.

“The CDC does not recommend testing every day after a close contact. That is their recommendation. We are going to follow the CDC guidelines. They recommend a combination of things, which is masking, testing, and monitoring for symptoms. He has no symptoms. We are going to continue to follow those guidelines. He is going to have those close consultations with his physician,” she said.

Jean-Pierre said all senior staffers test for COVID-19  anytime if they are around the president.

“We do tests. That has been the way we have moved forward for the past almost two years here. So that has not changed. No White House protocol is going to be changing, but when we do have a close engagement with the president, his senior staff and as you all know, or anyone, we do a test,” she noted.

As of now, there is no change in President Biden’s plans, she asserted.

“What I can say right now is that we do not have any changes, any updates or changes to his travel. The president tested negative yesterday. He tested negative this morning and he has no symptoms. He’s feeling good,” the press secretary said.

“Of course, he’s going to be very cautious and he’s going to wear a mask, as the CDC guidelines suggest or request. So that’s how we’re going to move forward. We just don’t have any updates and changes. We don’t have any updates in any schedule and the president’s feeling fine and we’re going to move forward,” she said.

U.S. President Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among the G20 leaders who have already confirmed their participation in the summit.

PM Modi will hand over the baton of the G20 Presidency to Brazilian President Lula on September 10.

Brazil will formally assume the G20 Presidency on December 1.

The G20 member countries represent around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).