The primal MAGA fear Trump is counting on

Created
Tue, 21/03/2023 - 10:00
Updated
Tue, 21/03/2023 - 10:00
A Black in power man trying to get a white man No surprise: it’s working. He pulled that chain and they came running: Bump writes: One of Donald Trump’s less-appreciated political skills is getting his supporters to view attacks on him as attacks on them. His supporters have often seen him that way, viewing criticism of Trump’s presidency or of him personally as an attack on the political movement he leads and, therefore, on them. The tactic works. Or: It generally does. When Trump’s primary frustration was the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible overlap between that effort and his campaign, turning the probe into a perceived attack on his supporters was tricky. Sure, there was a lot of “the Deep State is out of control and could do this to you,” but it’s not clear that this really landed. Instead of building his base’s reserves of empathy, the Russia probe drew from them. Instead of Trump making everyone the victim, he mostly fell back on complaining about being a victim himself. Since he lost the 2020 election, though, he’s had better luck. That’s particularly true of the probes underway in New York and Georgia, where he has opted to point at a potent worry for his base: reverse racism. Over the weekend, Trump declared on social media that he expected to be indicted this week by a grand jury empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He’s been attacking Bragg for some time now, but the idea that…