As the outrage surrounding the death of George Floyd extends beyond calls for police reform and moves into the destruction of public statues, some Republicans believe an electoral opportunity for President Trump is presenting itself.
For weeks, news reports from around the country have detailed left-wing activists removing and defacing a number of monuments to historical figures. Initially, the rage of activists was directed at Civil War Confederate figures, such as Gen. Robert E. Lee, but has progressively moved to individuals with any ties to slavery.
On Sunday, the American Museum of Natural History in New York asked the city for permission to remove a large statue of three figures — Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president and famed naturalist; a Native American man; and an African American man — from its premises, citing its allegedly insensitive nature.
“At the same time, the statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the museum and members of the public have long found disturbing,” the museum said online.
Trump quickly condemned the decision, tweeting, “Ridiculous, don’t do it!”
The move was the latest example of what conservatives view as overreach by those legitimately protesting police violence and is wildly out of step with the majority of voters in the upcoming race between Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Although a majority of people now say they support Black Lives Matter, many on the Right contend that doesn’t mean the public supports erasing the country’s history.
“Democratic radicalism will not only inspire the Trump base to come out in bigger numbers (you can already see that they are much more energized to vote than Biden voters), but it will dampen enthusiasm among more moderate Democrats and independent voters,” said Republican strategist John Feehery.
The statue controversy comes as the Trump campaign desperately looks for an issue to improve its rapidly declining poll numbers against Biden, the former vice president and 36-year senator. Recent surveys of voters have shown Trump trailing Biden by as many as 12 points, with a Fox News poll showing that just 38% of voters currently back Trump.
In the Electoral College, things aren’t looking much better for Trump. Formally solid-red states such as Arizona are slowly inching in Biden’s favor. The Trump campaign, which once hoped to flip states such as Minnesota and New Hampshire for the GOP, is now forced to play defense in places such as Arizona and potentially Florida and North Carolina.
The Trump campaign is currently reeling from its failed restart on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where, after saying it received more than 1 million RSVPs for the rally, just 6,500 supporters turned up and filled just a third of the stadium. The optics of that event, despite garnering millions of views on television and online, raised questions about whether even members of the president’s base were losing confidence in him as the November election looms closer.
But with members of the Left destroying statues of Civil War figures such as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, later a two-term president, and U.S. national anthem author Francis Scott Key, the Trump campaign’s strategy of tying Biden to the more radical members of his party may find new life. Suburban voters outside the more than 20 cities that have seen statues toppled since Floyd’s death may reconsider abandoning the GOP, some Republicans say.
“[These radical leftists] are misguided, ignorant of history, and trying to impose a Jacobin tyranny on regular Americans who revere their history,” said Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser. “I think these acts of vandalism, theft, and mob violence will only help candidates who vigorously oppose such radical acts, including President Trump.”
Supporters of the president also say his warnings about the vandalism of statues in 2017 seem vindicated.
“This week, it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? … You really do have to ask yourself, ‘Where does it stop?'” Trump said at a press conference that year.
