Is Trump Racist or Trying to Be Funny
Donald Trump appears to exist betting his presidency on a counterintuitive premise: that even in 21st century America, race baiting can yet win elections.
When Trump doubled down Mon on his line that a group of minority women in the House should leave the state if they don't similar it, he said more than one time that he believes his language — which was widely condemned equally racist by Democratic politicians and members of the press — will rally voters to his side.
"A lot of people love it, by the mode," Trump said of his earlier tweet. "A lot of people love information technology."
Trump added that his message was simply that America is great, that the economy is doing well, and that if people don't similar it hither, they can leave.
"Those Tweets were NOT Racist," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "I don't have a Racist bone in my trunk!"
Time and again, Trump has waded into racially charged controversies — over the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va., or the NFL national anthem protests, or the influx of asylum seekers on America's southern border — with inflammatory language that triggers accusations of racism.
But it's starting to seem as if provoking such accusations may exist the whole point. Selling America on an calendar of banning Muslims and separating immigrants from their children is hard, but convincing some smaller subset of the Republican electorate that Democrats see Trump supporters as racists? That's much easier, especially when Trump himself is constantly goading those aforementioned Democrats into calling him a racist.
"They have a very articulate strategy, Trump and his entrada," said onetime Obama strategist David Axelrod on Monday's "Hacks on Tap" podcast. "Everybody needs to keep an eye on this guy'southward tactics and not get lit on burn every time he does something outrageous and morally broke."
The idea is not so much that Trump'southward offensive racial remarks volition inspire a critical mass of Americans to vote for him. Rather, it'southward that Trump supporters will be outraged by the label "racist," then motivated to plough out in 2020 — and vote against Democrats — considering of it.
"The Democrats have to be careful about giving Trump the state of war he wants," said Republican strategist Mike Potato, Axelrod's "Hacks on Tap" co-host. "They can have all the moral high ground, and they take information technology on this. But if information technology comes down to a large racial-identity state of war in America, that is fuel for Trump's type of demagoguery."
As if on cue, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Mon and Tuesday showed Trump's internet approving among Republicans rising in the wake of the controversy.
Democratic responses to Trump over the past few days bear witness his opponents understand this potential trap, even if they aren't completely sure how to avoid information technology.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who was asked virtually Trump'southward comments Sunday evening later a solar day of candidature in New Hampshire, unequivocally called Trump's annotate "racist and united nations-American" but and so pivoted to a more uplifting message nearly the need for the country to have a unifying leader.
"This guy doesn't empathize his responsibilities, and I don't think he understands what the American people desire from their president, which is somebody who is going to elevate public discourse and speak with a level of dignity with the goal of unity," Harris said. "This president doesn't understand that and that's why I'm running against him, and that's why he needs to go."
But in the headline-driven news bike, the chief takeaway for almost people was her denunciation, and her attempt at existence a unifier got lost in the wash.
Similarly, the four Firm Democrats targeted by Trump said, to different degrees, that Trump's assault on them was a diversion.
"We'll stay focused on our agenda," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "All of this is a distraction. ... He does not know how to defend his policies, and so what he does is attack the states personally."
"This is a distraction and we should not take the bait," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Yet no one has talked of much else since Sun morning. And the news cycle on Tuesday was consumed with news of blowback to Business firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi'south comment on the House flooring that Trump'south comments were "racist," which triggered a protest from Republicans over the fact that House rules forestall referring to the president with such descriptions. The Democratic-controlled House voted to allow Pelosi's comments to stand up, prompting more outcries from Republicans.
Politico, citing anonymous sources in and around the White House, reported that Trump'southward advisers viewed his original Sunday morning tweets as going as well far, and that the president knew he had erred and tried to recast the comment in his back and along with reporters at the White House Mon afternoon without bankroll down.
Regardless, the righteous anger of Trump's critics may not hurt him amongst fundamental voters in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where a asymmetric number of white working-class Trump supporters stayed domicile in 2018 — and may ultimately return to the ballot box if they can exist persuaded that Democrats are accusing them, past proxy, of racism.
At that place are signs that Trump understands these dynamics. "One of them is polling at eight percent," the president told reporters Monday — an credible reference to an internal Autonomous poll that leaked to Axios Sunday and showed Rep. Omar with a ix per centum approval rating among white, non-college, swing-district voters.
Meanwhile, Ari Fleischer, who was a White Business firm printing secretary for President George W. Bush and who has spoken with Trump entrada advisers near their turnout projections, told the Washington Post that "Trump is proposing a giant swap."
"Republicans tin no longer count on suburban women and nosotros volition continue to lose college-educated men and women, while we increasingly choice upwards working white Americans without college degrees," Fleischer explained. "Nobody knows who volition come out ahead in the bandy."
And in the heart of the firestorm Trump retweeted a video from a immature conservative named Brandon Straka that vilified the media for invoking "racism, homophobia, bigotry and falsely assign[ing] these emotionally charged accusations to people in situations where they do not belong."
Information technology's "only to control your thinking" and information technology is "criminal," said Straka, a self-described sometime liberal who has launched a entrada to convince Democrats to "walk away" from the party. "It turns out they do it all the time."
Senate Bulk Leader Mitch McConnell echoed this line Tuesday, telling reporters that the "political rhetoric has actually gotten manner, way overheated all across the political spectrum," earlier directing his ire at Democrats.
"We've seen the far left throw accusations of racism at anybody, anyone who disagrees with them on anything — including the speaker of the House," McConnell said, referencing the recent dispute betwixt Nancy Pelosi and "the Squad."
Fifty-fifty Tim Scott, the GOP's only African-American U.Southward. senator, stopped short of calling Trump'southward tweet racist. Instead, Scott said it was "racially offensive."
One veteran Democratic strategist noted that "Trump tried this in 2018" during the midterms past describing the and so-chosen caravan as an invasion of undocumented immigrants. "He leaned in late on the immigration stuff and the dog whistles," the Democratic strategist said. "The candidates that managed to navigate that by not taking the allurement did pretty well."
Simply he also said the current flap is simply a dress rehearsal for the more consequential challenges that will confront the eventual Autonomous nominee.
"It's going to affair a lot more when we become to Apr next year and nosotros see how the candidate who'due south running against Trump handles it," he said.
Even then, the various Democratic hopefuls might too start honing their counterstrategies.
"We're going to run across a steady nutrition of this from now until November of 2020," Axelrod predicted. "So this is not for the prissy. Everybody fasten their seatbelts. It's going to be a very bumpy ride."
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Source: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-racist-backlash-2020-win-012525072.html
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