As Democrats savaged his leadership for four nights running, President Trump positioned himself as the protector of his base.
“They want to cancel you, totally cancel you,” Trump said in a speech in Pennsylvania during the Democratic National Convention. “Take your job. Turn your family against you for speaking your mind, while they indoctrinate your children with twisted, twisted world views that nobody ever thought possible.”
Even Trump’s call to boycott Goodyear — controversial in no small part because the tire manufacturer is an employer in the mostly Republican-led, must-win state of Ohio — was an intervention on behalf of his supporters, workers who wear MAGA hats and other pro-Trump paraphernalia.
“What happened is, there was an image that was put out that showed that certain speech was acceptable — Black Lives Matter insignia, for instance — but what was not allowed was Blue Lives Matter; what was not allowed was MAGA hats,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at a briefing. “What was clearly targeted was a certain ideology.”
A Trump campaign fundraising email sent out on the third night of the Democratic convention summed up the message well: “All of these Radical Democrats HATE me and they HATE you.”
Such a strategy does push back against the Democrats’ attempts to portray themselves as empathetic toward ordinary people. It also has the potential to pump up base enthusiasm in what figures to be a challenging fall campaign.
“I think the Democrats expressed, in no uncertain terms, their ambivalence about the whole concept of American exceptionalism,” said Republican strategist John Feehery. “Trump needs to stress that America and its free market system are both exceptional and need to be protected from the likes of Bernie and AOC.”
But there’s a risk that simply appealing to the Trump base won’t be enough to close the gap — currently, 7.4 points in the RealClearPolitics national polling average — with Democratic challenger Joe Biden. It could also hurt Trump to be talking about MAGA hats and cancel culture while Democrats focus on COVID-19.
“Trump’s challenge will be twofold,” said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime. “First, he has a chance to convince Americans that he’s done a better job battling coronavirus than they think. It is the biggest challenge of his presidency, and he needs to convince people that he’s got us on the right path as they deal with so much disruption in their lives. As he’s taken it more seriously and the COVID numbers have come down, his polling has gotten better. That’s not a coincidence.”
“The second challenge is to create an ideological contrast with the far-left elements of the Democratic Party that supports defunding the police, creating an expensive Green New Deal, and jacking up taxes,” DuHaime continued. “The Democrats skillfully avoided much mention of these policies, so the GOP will likely want to show that contrast.”
Beginning Monday, the party will get its chance as the convention to renominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence kicks off. “I expect we’ll see a very different presentation at the Republican convention,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant. “Trump loves live audiences, which lend themselves to speeches with more applause lines and red meat. Trump will talk about the economy and argue that Biden’s liberal agenda would hurt job creation.”
“While I thought the mechanics of the DNC convention went well, they tried to paint a very dismal picture regarding America without providing policy specifics on what they would do to change the country’s direction,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “The RNC convention should be realistically positive about the future direction of the country and that we are making our way back to the way things were before COVID-19. Trump needs to provide a specific vision for the future and contrast it with Biden’s failure to lead for the 47 years he’s been in public service.”
“Over the last week, the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history. They spent four straight days attacking America as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed,” Trump said at the conservative Council for National Policy meeting on Friday. “Joe Biden grimly declared a season of American darkness.”
Trump plans to accept the Republican presidential nomination for a second term at the White House on Thursday.
