Election Commentary by Matt Angle, Lone Star Project Director
Over the last few weeks, Donald Trump and his campaign have been throwing fat lures in the water. The media, along with some political pundits who should know better, have taken the bait and gotten reeled in.
Trump’s visit to a Black church, the rally in the Bronx, and his other so-called minority outreach stunts aren’t about soliciting support from African Americans or Hispanics or anyone of color.
Trump and his handlers know he can’t hide his history or his life-long hostility to people of color. Trump called for the death penalty for five innocent Black teenagers 25 years ago. He launched a racist birther attack on President Obama. He wanted soldiers to fire on Black Lives Matter protesters. He rallies his hater base using terms like “poisoning the blood,” “live like vermin,” and “Soros-backed animal.”
But a staged church visit and a phony rally in the Bronx, both with mostly White MAGAs attending, suckered the media into calling it all outreach. It was a scam. Trump knows he’s not getting meaningful support from Blacks, Hispanics, or any minority voters.
So, what are the fake Trump minority appeals really about? They are a cynical signal to White people – especially the 20 percent or so of White Republicans and some Independents who don’t like Trump’s alliance with White supremacists and divisive hate groups.
Trump knows that many otherwise rational White voters who held their noses and supported him in the past need a permission lane to find their way to voting for him now. They need something to rationalize supporting a man they know in their hearts is vile and broken.
And Trump knows that a whole lot of people can’t resist taking the bait when he pretends to seek African American and other minority support. He sets up the lie and waits for the media and gullible others to devour it and then help him sell it.
