Trump's Fakery: An Opportunity for Democrats

 People Are Noticing that Trump Is a Fake

Trump’s supporters are finally noticing what has been obvious to most of us all along: his populism is fake. The fact that his own supporters are noticing that his populism is fake provides an opening that can be exploited in next year’ elections and in 2028.

 Mr. Trump is a billionaire real estate developer from New York, and he has a mansion in a part of Florida where he is surrounded by the same people he associates with in New York. Why would anyone expect him to know or care about people outside of his very narrow circle?

However, he is a very good salesman, and like any good salesman, he is able to project empathy when it will help him to make a sale. So, he has been able to persuade millions of people that he cares for them and works for them in spite of the fact that the biggest achievements of his first and second administrations have been tax cuts for himself and his wealthy friends.

Within the Republican Party, the role of Trump and his MAGA movement has always been to provide a smoke screen behind which the traditional, business Republicans can enact tax cuts and roll back environmental and financial regulations.

Spectacular Corruption

Trump is also spectacularly corrupt. He uses his presidential prestige and power to promote deals for his companies. As the New York Times reports,

The Trump Organization is in talks that could bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments, according to the chief executive of the Saudi company leading the development.

The negotiations are the latest example of Mr. Trump blending governance and family business, particularly in Persian Gulf countries. Since returning to office, the president’s family and businesses have announced new ventures abroad involving billions of dollars, made hundreds of millions from cryptocurrency, and sold tickets to a private dinner hosted by Mr. Trump.

His Supporter Are Waking Up

However, his supporters are beginning to wake up. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” People know that their grocery bills are rising. So, when he says that the price of food has gone down, they know that he is lying. People know that the cost of their health insurance is unaffordable, and that unaffordability makes them angry. So, cracks are appearing in the Republican coalition.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest supporters, now thinks that he is on the wrong track. The Hill quotes her as saying,

“I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are,” the Georgia Republican wrote in the post. “And it truly speaks for itself. There needs to be a new way forward.”

She added that “toxic political industrial complex thrives on ripping us all apart but never delivers anything good for the American people, whom I love.”

Meanwhile, American farmers and rural communities are suffering from the effects of the Trump tariffs and other policies, and they know the source of their suffering. The Trump coalition is falling apart.

Can Democrats Seize This Opportunity?

All of this provides an opening that Democrats can exploit in next year’s elections, but to exploit this opening effectively, they will need to understand that today’s elections are not just about interests. They are about identities. Voting Republican or Democratic has become an expression of a voter’s identity, and Democrats cannot gain many votes from Republicans merely by appealing to what appears to be their interest. Instead, Democrats must find ways to appeal to voters’ identities.

There are many ways to do this, but one example might be a TV ad in which we see a white, middle-class husband and wife at their kitchen table. He is an electrician, and we see the name of his firm on his shirt. She is a nurse still in her scrubs. They talk about how they feel betrayed by the policies of the Trump administration, but hat they say is not the sole focus of the ad. It also makes the audience see that these people – white, small-town working people – are expressing their sense of betrayal. People who see themselves as “like” the couple in the ad may identify with them and with their feelings. Their shared sense of betrayal may then override their Republican identity, especially if the couple say that they have never voted for a Democrat, but now they are thinking about doing just that. Showing the ad once won’t have much effect, but showing it over and over again would be a different matter.

Here is another possibility. In a TV ad, three handsome young men on a ship are taking a break from their work. They are commercial divers – underwater construction workers – and they talk about how glad they are to have the work and what a difference the construction of offshore wind farms is making in their lives. Again, the things they say are only a part of the message. The other part is that they are saying these things, and they are people with whom many Trump supporters can identify.

These are only a couple of possibilities. There are lots more. Let's get to work.