President Joe Biden has told key allies that he knows the coming days are crucial and understands that he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince voters that he is up to the job after a disastrous debate performance last week.
The New York Times
No question, Donald Trump is on a roll. CBS News reports that 72% of debate watchers said he looked “more presidential” than Biden. The Supreme Court has constrained the legal cases against him, and a Harvard-Harris poll found Trump leading Biden with voters nationally 52% to 48%. That’s not the only poll with Trump above the magic 50% mark, so many Democrats now believe the President will take the entire party down with him in November.
Democrats can’t believe the “greatest threat to democracy” is now the beneficiary of their great political deception being exposed on live TV. Most voters now believe “an old man with a poor memory” was pushed by “his handlers” to support left-liberal policies (e.g. once-men competing in women’s sports) and run up the national debt to $34.9 trillion. Yes, Biden flopped, but Trump’s ahead for reasons the hosts of Morning Joe and The View will never acknowledge.
Everything with Trump begins with his marketing acumen. It led to his surprise win in 2016, when he was early to see a large bloc of voters, Forgotten Americans, created by 24 years of reckless globalism. He blamed “dumb” trade deals for killing factory jobs and factory towns, “dumb” foreign wars for trillions in government debt, and “dumb” open borders for hordes of illegal aliens.
Trump was the first to grab Forgotten America’s core, working-class men. That’s why his rallies sounded more like Barstool Sports than campaign speeches. That’s why he talked tough about China, endless wars, and the war on fossil fuels; men were 92% of blue-collar workers, 80% of active-duty combat troops, and 85% of commercial drivers (sources: Deloitte Workforce Report, Brookings, and USDOT).
Trump embraced “situational politics” – lost jobs, mistreated veterans, high gas prices – to beat Ms. Clinton, blaming every unsolved problem on crooked and self-serving politicians (AKA the Washington Swamp). He claimed America’s true victims were rural families and maligned white men, and they responded by giving him 61.5% of their vote (source: NEP 2016 exit polls). Voila! MAGA populism became a dynamic political movement.
Henceforth, the GOP share of votes from Hispanic men grew from 32% to 45%, Black men from 13% to 17%, married women from 47% to 56%, and veterans from 60% to 62%, resulting in 74 million MAGA voters in 2020. Trump’s one weak spot was (no surprise) single women with college degrees. Still, MAGA was the big tent for decent folks alienated by left-liberal policies and positions.
To wit, even as Trump’s post-election antics cost him personally, married moms – angered by “woke” school boards – moved MAGA forward. First, they helped Republican Glenn Youngkin upset Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial race. Then, they helped Florida governor Ron DeSantis win a landslide in 2022. Trump might be floundering, but MAGA offshoots Families First and America First picked up voters.
Then, after his mid-term endorsements flopped and his indictments mounted, Trump surprised his detractors by subtly re-inventing himself. The mean tweets about RINOs were replaced by mean tweets about Democrat judges and prosecutors (e.g. the Fani Willis clown show). He trusted Montana senator Steve Daines to tap GOP senate candidates; thereby helping unite the party at the grass roots level.
When Trump’s “inner” entrepreneur (flexible, learning from mistakes, strategic) showed up, Sen. Markwayne Mullin told The Hill, “What you’re seeing is a complete different approach and leadership style.” Like endorsing former Maryland governor Larry Hogan for the Senate, and making peace with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And, by skipping the GOP debates, a “silent” Trump was subject to fewer “hits” by liberal media.
He was sold on this new approach by campaign leaders Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. Now, it’s a “talkative” Joe Biden attracting the liberal media’s ire. Trump won the debate, Biden talked his way into an intra-party war, and The Hill reports, “Trump and his team are running a cleaner, more buttoned-up and more disciplined operation compared to his previous campaigns.”
Still, Trump remains an “outsider” by avoiding politesse. If that’s vexing to you, look deeper to see 61% of France voted against center-left Macron, 76.3% of England voted against center-right Rishi Sunak, and 64% of America disapproves of left-liberal Biden. No question, western electorates see an inept political class that botched COVID and Putin, invited runaway inflation and immigration, and showed no sense of emergency.
In contrast, Trump has declared CODE BLUE on Biden’s presidency, and CODE RED on America’s borders. When 67% of voters think America is heading in the wrong direction, its leader should declare bold – sometimes controversial – action. Trump’s campaign is a call to arms; create an oil-and-gas exporting nation, deport illegal aliens, put more tariffs on China, settle the Ukraine War in 48 hours, you name it.
And THAT is why Trump rides again!