so good A lot of stuff Branded with Donald Trump’s name, his 2024 campaign is less a product in shiny packaging.
Trump-Vance 2024 benefited from savvy marketing. This time Trump has enlisted two Republicans to help Chief Operatives: Susie Wiles, who planned the GOP’s Florida win, and Chris LaCivita, who “introducedSwiftboating“In the American vernacular. And the professionalism and ruthless pragmatism of Trump’s new state managers made themselves felt.
At the behest of the Trump campaign, the GOP has removed calls to federally ban abortion or oppose same-sex marriage. Platform, while adding a commitment to maintain Medicare and Social Security’s existing benefit levels and retirement age. All these changes have brought in the Republicans nearby alignment with public opinion.
At the Republican National Convention, meanwhile, Trump’s team made overtures to several traditionally Democratic constituencies, giving a labor leader and biracial influencer primetime speaking slots.
When Democrats put a spotlight on the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” — a compilation of all the conservative movement’s policy goals for a second Trump White House, including federal abortion restrictions and the decriminalization of pornography — the Trump campaign not only repudiated the document, but Its main author has been fired.
And recently, Trump has espoused heterogeneous economic policy ideas with some appeal to swing constituencies, e.g Escape Tips And Social security benefits from taxes
But word marketing only gets you so far. And in recent days, Trump and his running mate have made it clear that their campaign is trying to sell a similarly flawed product. Their handlers may try to present them as center-right populists who will be tough on immigration, while protecting rights and leaving abortion in the states. But let them speak unwritten for long enough, and the strange and repulsive nature of their worldview will shine through.
On Wednesday, the GOP nominee participated in a question-and-answer session before the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Trump could have used this appearance to advance several of his campaign’s sound line attacks against Kamala Harris: that she Once approved a lot Exceptionally Leftist policiessuch as Criminalization of border enforcement; that he presided over the highest inflation in four decades; Or he might have Overtly underestimated The extent of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
Instead, he chose to suggest that Harris is not really black, because in some contexts he identifies with his Indian mother’s heritage. (His father is Jamaican.)
To be the vice president[ed] To be black,” Trump explained. “She was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black woman.”
Since being banished from Twitter, Trump has had fewer opportunities to advertise his racial sensitivities and personal cruelty on a highly-visible platform. But no campaign consultant could verify Trump’s outrageous lyrics about Harris’ ethnicity before they came out of his mouth.
Nor, apparently, did they prevent him from doubling down on this eccentric line of attack in the face of controversy.
Trump at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday night projected On a large overhead screen was an image of a news story that described Harris as “Indian-American”.
Trump repeated the attack on Thursday True social posting An old picture of Harris with several Indian family members, underneath the sarcastic message, “Thank you Kamala for the beautiful picture you sent so many years ago! Your warmth, friendliness and love for your Indian heritage is greatly appreciated!”
Trump’s attacks on Harris’ ethnicity are disingenuous (and possibly counterproductive)
It is perhaps misguided to look for some tactical logic in this rancid effusion. Questioning Harris’s blackness was a coldly calculated move rather than a thoughtless outburst, intended to promote the idea that he was a fake: For most of his life, Trump clearly argues, Harris’ real, primary racial identity was Indian, but he Chose to play down that part of the heritage – and emphasize his Jamaican roots – once he entered Democratic politics in an unprovoked departure for personal gain.
If this argument has a legitimate purpose, it is to trigger white Americans’ anger at affirmative action (Harris hates his position for the cruel exploitation of his heritage) by undermining black voters’ enthusiasm for his candidacy.
I can’t say with absolute certainty that Trump’s attack on Harris’ identity will fail to achieve either of those goals. Trump launched all sorts of disparaging attacks in 2016 and then won the presidency. And current polls say he is a slight favorite in this election.
But I don’t believe any competent political consultant would encourage Trump to pursue this line of attack. Voters worried about immigration and inflation. Harris’ record leaves him vulnerable on both fronts. Any day the media is talking about his racial heritage isn’t the day they’re talking about his most unpopular position during the 2020 primary campaign. Meanwhile, one of Trump’s biggest liabilities is one he realizes Stokes racial division, and therefore not really a candidate for order and social peace. Attacking Harris on the basis of his race raises the bar for that liability — especially since the attack in question is transparently vicious and innocent.
Harris attended Howard University, a historically black college. His identity as black therefore predates his political career.
This is the Trump who suddenly chose to adopt a clearly unproven social identity after running for office: After spending decades as one of America’s most prominent libertarians, Trump reinvented himself in 2015 as a devout Christian whose “favorite book” is the Bible. Nevertheless, he proved unable to name a precious Bible verse when asked in an interview and flubbed the name of a New Testament book in a campaign speech.
JD Vance is the most disliked vice presidential candidate on record
In any case, Trump’s comments about Harris weren’t the only misstep in his appearance before the NABJ. Asked if his choice for vice president, J.D. Vance, was qualified to assume the presidency on Day One, the 78-year-old Republican nominee declined to say yes, instead replying, “The vice president has no influence in terms of the election.”
Trump’s eagerness to distance himself from his running mate is understandable. Vance is a similarly difficult product to sell.
The Ohio senator’s career as a politician was short and uneventful. In 2022, he won the election With a margin of just six points in the Senate, even GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine won his race by 25 points.
The source of Vance’s poor performance is not difficult to identify. he is there Charisma Of a memoirist, not a politician. And he has developed a variety of deeply unpopular and unorthodox policy positions, arguing that rape victims should would be legally prohibited From “two wrongs don’t make a right” to abortion and lamenting the imprisonment of the January 6 rioters.
In recent weeks, Vance’s strange disdain for childless women has come to national attention. Democrat promoted A clip from a July 2021 interview that Vance Tucker gave to Carlson, in which he told the then-Fox News host that the Democratic Party is run by “childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives.”
Vance supported the claim by citing Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as childless Democrats who, as a result of their childlessness, had no “direct stake” in their country’s future.
One problem with Vance’s argument is that Harris has step-children, and Buttigieg was in the process of adopting twins in the summer of 2021. Another problem is that caring about young loved ones (including, say, your niece or nephew), or the betterment of your country, is an end in itself. And a third problem is that many people who want to have children are unable to do so as a result of infertility, and to mock their supposed plight is a strange and disturbing thing.
There is actress Jennifer Aniston publicly struggled including fertility, This is the third point highlighted In an Instagram post criticizing Vance’s comments.
The Republican vice-presidential candidate then had a chance to walk back his year-old comments, express regret for any hurt his ill-considered remarks caused and explain that what he really meant was that we need to make it easier. Americans will start families through better public policies.
Instead, she decided to suggest that Aniston had sexted her child as she wrote in her message, “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is lucky enough to have her own child one day.
“Hollywood celebrities are saying, ‘Oh, well, JD Vance, what if your daughter has fertility issues?’ The Megyn Kelly Show. “Well, first of all, it’s disgusting because my daughter is 2 years old. And secondly, if she has fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I will do everything I can to help her because I believe family and children are a good thing.”
None of this endeared Vance to the American people. As CNN’s Harry Enten Comment, Vance is the first vice presidential nominee to have a net-negative favorability rating immediately after being introduced at their party’s convention. And in ABC News polling, Vance’s net approval fell from -6 points immediately after his nomination to -15 points.
All that said, it’s entirely possible that Trump and Vance will be in the White House next year. In fact, Trump still exists the leading Harris Inn Many polls The main battleground states. But if the Republican Party succeeds in winning the presidency this November, it won’t be because of the two men on its ticket.
