On midterm election day in the United States, President Donald Trump has handed his re-election effort to three governments that were never on his payroll. Iran, China and Russia have each taken up a share of the campaign, working in shifts across the Gulf, the Pacific and the Arctic, according to officials who asked not to be named because they were enjoying themselves too much to be quoted.
The Iranian contribution began on Monday, when Tehran announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, and a convoy of tankers was dispatched to sail through it at walking pace so that every fuel pump between Maine and California could be seen to drop its price in the same afternoon. Pump attendants in three states reported having to print new signs before lunch. Beijing, meanwhile, has deployed a rotating team of trade negotiators to hold daily ribbon-cutting ceremonies at American soybean ports, each one lasting exactly as long as the president's speech on the subject.
Moscow has committed its own resources. The Ministry of Defence has ordered a full parade of tanks along the Alaskan border, painted in the colours of the Republican Party, and has asked that the footage be broadcast on every television set in the Midwest at dinner time. A Kremlin spokesman described the operation as « a small gift from one strong leader to another, which the Americans are free to accept or to admire from a distance ».
Election staff in Washington have begun to complain that they no longer have much to do. The White House has set up a dedicated desk to thank its foreign helpers, and it is said to be the busiest office in the building, with a queue that now stretches down to the Ellipse.