Trump is “staying on message” and that message is racism and sexism

Trump's knows his MAGA base

A parade of pundits have been publicly pleading with Donald Trump to “stay on message”— meaning in their view that Trump should focus on the economy and policy issues.  On Monday, Karl Rove reiterated that point on Fox News pleading with Trump to have a “much more disciplined message.” Trump allies Larry Kudlow and Kellyanne Conway while on Fox News recently made the same plea, saying “the winning formula” is “more insights and policy contrast.” Even Lindsey Graham and Nikki Haley have publicly begged Trump to “stay on message.”

But convicted felon Trump is way ahead of them. Trump is laser focused on the message that he believes will help him win in 2024: Racism and sexism.

Let’s start with a truism: Donald Trump knows his base better than anyone. He understands what makes them line up hours before a rally to hear a bloated, nearly 80-year-old man meander for 90 minutes as he showers them with a firehose of lies. And Trump knows what will get them to buy his autographed Bibles, sneakers, mug shot T-shirts, head to the polls—and even attack the Capitol as they did Jan. 6 on his behalf.

Do you think the MAGA base does that because Trump is going to bring down the price of milk by 30 cents a gallon?! Or that Trump has a plan to reduce the trade deficit?! (Pause for laughs.)

Of course not. And no one knows that more than Trump. The foundation of Trump’s 2016 campaign was racism and sexism, beginning with his very first speech in 2015 when he declared that Mexico was sending “rapists” who are “bringing crime” and “bringing drugs.” (Before even that there was Trump’s racist birther campaign.)  Then came Trump’s sexist smears of his opponent Hillary Clinton as well as his ugly attacks on women who came forward to report Trump had sexually assaulted  them by saying they weren’t attractive enough for him to grope or rape.

Despite what the corporate media claimed at the time, Trump’s base was not motivated in 2016 by “economic anxiety.” Rather, as numerous studies after the 2016 election found, it was racism and sexism. For example, a January 2018, study by three Amherst political scientists found the key indicator in why white voters without a college degree (the MAGA core) supported Trump was not their economic situation. Rather, “racism and sexism attitudes were strongly associated with vote choice in 2016.” 

A 2018 Stanford University study found the same, “Those who felt that the hierarchy was being upended—with whites discriminated against more than blacks, Christians discriminated against more than Muslims, and men discriminated against more than women—were most likely to support Trump.”

Overall as the Brookings Institution detailed in 2019, “While some observers have explained Trump’s success as a result of economic anxiety, the data demonstrate that anti-immigrant sentiment, racism, and sexism are much more strongly related to support for Trump.”

Trump doesn’t need studies to tell him that. He instinctively understands this. He knows the biggest applause lines at his rallies are when he is trafficking in racism –be it versus immigrants or about Harris. And he hears the crowd laugh and cheer with his sexist remarks—be they about his past accusers, Hillary Clinton or now VP Harris.

That is why Trump has resurrected his past playbook of racism and sexism against Harris. We saw that with Trump’s recent statement that Harris “happened to turn Black,” adding, “I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump was weaponizing race to animate his base, as experts noted. Same goes for Trump intentionally mispronouncing her first name with the goal being to both disrespect and otherize her.

Trump’s ugly sexism is also now on display. We saw this with his dismissing Harris as being “dumb as a rock” and mocking her laugh.

And on Monday night, the increasingly desperate Trump took his sexism to a new low with his post on social media where he accused Harris of only being successful because she had sex with a powerful Democrat. In this video Trump shared with millions of his followers, we see images of Harris and a parody song with the lyrics about her: “Spent her whole damn life down on her knees; To be commander in chief, that’s how you say please.”

This is yet another reference by Trump to Harris’s relationship in the mid-1990’s with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco. This was the point Trump tried to raise two weeks ago in a press conference when he (wrongly) mentioned being in a helicopter crash with Brown--but Trump’s apparent dementia got the best of him so the story was mangled.  The sexist and BS claim Harris “slept her way to the top” is a point, though, being peddled by Trump and many visible figures on the right.  

When you hear Republicans like Nikki Haley slam Trump for talking Harris’s race or calling her “dumb” and urging him to instead “stay on message,” either they have been in a coma since 2015 or they are gaslighting us. In reality, they know exactly what animates Trump’s MAGA base. (It’s a big part of the reason why Haley lost so badly in the 2024 GOP primary to Trump.)

That is why we can expect Trump to double, triple and quadrupole down on racism and sexism over the final two months of the campaign. That was his message in 2016--and he won. Trump believes that message is how he will win in 2024. America may have dramatically changed since 2016, but Trump and his base have not changed a bit. In fact, they want to take us back to a time when this type of vileness was acceptable. But as Vice President Harris tell us in every speech, “We're Not Going Back!”

[UPDATE: On Thursday, Trump peddled anti-Semitic BS about Pennsylvania Gov Josh Shapiro calling him a “Jewish governor.” Shapiro’s faith is not relevant to his policies. This is simply more of Trump animating his base with hate.]

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