Trump wants ‘The Squad’ to be the face of the opposition
Ugly as it is, there has been political method in Donald Trump’s seemingly racist madness this week. And the fruits of it could be seen at the Sabathani community centre in suburban Minneapolis. Hundreds of enthusiastic Democrats packed into a spartan auditorium to hear Ilhan Omar, the object of Mr Trump’s ire, talk about state-funded healthcare. If this was the future of the Democratic Party, lurching left with Ms Omar in the vanguard, then Mr Trump will be confident of returning to the White House in 2020.
“I think what Trump’s done is actually going to make the centrist, corporatist side of the Democratic Party move towards us,” said Mike Neaton, 69, a supporter of Ms Omar. “Joe Biden is old news. The Democratic National Committee will push Biden, push middle of the road, but they’re out of touch and no one’s listening to them.”
Following Mr Trump’s attacks on Ms Omar and three other liberal Democrat congresswomen, who are known as “The Squad”, there is no doubt where the energy in the Democrat Party now is. Riven by policy disagreements – on healthcare, climate change and college tuition – a “Corbynisation” of the party, and a potential electoral cliff, looms.
This didn’t happen by chance. Republican strategists set out to make The Squad the face of the opposition. Their polling shows over 80 per cent of Republicans have a “very unfavourable” view of both Ms Omar, and fellow Squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Republican “hate rating” for the more moderate Mr Biden is only 58 per cent. The question, as is often the case, is
whether Mr Trump has gone too far.
By suggesting the congresswomen – none of whom are white – should “go back” where they came from, he could risk losing support among moderate Republicans and independents.
“That doesn’t matter. There are no moderate Republicans anymore. It’s a dead species,” said Larry Sabato, politics professor at the University of Virginia. “Just like conservative Democrats are a dead species. The Republican Party is gone. This is the party of Trump.
“It’s going to be a very polarised election, and Trump’s ratings with Republicans have actually gone up since this row. He was already at 90 per cent, now he’s in the mid-90s. That gives him the extra per cent or so he needs in a close general election. He doesn’t have to make any converts (among independents).”
The electorate is now so polarised it would take a serious recession, or an unpopular war, to damage Mr Trump’s near universal Republican support, Prof Sabato said.
That polarisation was on display at the “Mall of America”, the largest shopping mall in the US, which by chance sits on the edge of Ms Omar’s congressional district in Minnesota.
Visited by 40 million shoppers a year, it is big enough to fit seven of New York’s Yankee Stadiums inside. There is perhaps no better place to take the electoral temperature of America. Republicans and Democrats were increasingly entrenched, independents leaning Democrat but concerned about the party becoming too radical.
“The Democrats look to me like they’re being pushed to the Left, everything’s about race and transgender and so on,” said Larry Peterson, 63, a retired oil worker who identifies as independent. “But I just don’t want to see Trump in office after this. You can’t say that, go back, about another person. Joe Biden seems pretty mainstream, and the Harris gal [Kamala Harris] too, I can go for them.”
Mr Peterson added: “A lot of my friends are Trump. They just think he’s the greatest person ever, and they’re loving this. Moderate Republicans I know are embarrassed, they’re tolerating him, keeping their mouths shut.”
Carl David, 69, a truck driver and military veteran, spoke for the Trump base. “This little deal the other day – Trump got it absolutely right. If you don’t love our country, then leave. I believe that about anybody in this mall right now,” he said, looking around at other shoppers and raising his voice. “If you don’t love America, you need to go to some country where you can find out what it’s like not to have freedom.
“I fought for this county, ’68 to ’71, Vietnam, and I’ve never felt so good about this country as right now. You tell me one person that’s done more for this country than Trump. What he said’s going to tick off a lot of people but I don’t care. They always throw the racecard at you. But Obama sent back more people than Trump and you don’t hear about that.”
Although less vocal, Marti Lehnert, 66, a retired Ford worker and Democrat, was just as passionate. “Trump is a racist and a hatemonger. We have a narcissistic child running our country,” she said. “He’s not a Christian. The Democrats, we are more quiet, but we really need to get cooking.”
She added some of the party was “going too far Left and that’s a danger”.
Ms Omar seems more than willing to play the role Mr Trump wants.
Arriving back in Minnesota from
‘Trump got it absolutely right. If you don’t love our country, then leave. I believe that about anybody’
Washington for the weekend, she was greeted at baggage claim by about 100 cheering supporters. Through a megaphone she promised to be Mr Trump’s “nightmare”. She added: “We are not frightened, we are ready. We are in the ring.”
She then went to the Sabathani community centre where armed police officers sat in a car outside, a reminder of how vicious the rhetoric’s become.
Mr Trump will welcome Ms Omar’s decision to keep sparring. Her record is fertile ground for him. This week she introduced a bill in Congress backing Americans’ rights to join the Palestinian-led global Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. In February she had to apologise to Jewish groups after being accused of anti-Semitism. She had suggested that the pro-Israel lobby was paying US politicians, tweeting: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.”
The fact Ms Omar represents Minnesota is also an important sub-plot in the ongoing row.
Minnesota has become something of a totemic state for Mr Trump as he looks to 2020. It has been Democrat for longer than any other US state – in 11 straight elections since 1976.
However, in 2016, Mr Trump came within a whisker of winning it, trailing Hillary Clinton by just 1.5 per cent, or 45,000 votes. In 2016, he only campaigned there once. He has already been three times since.
“The president has a legitimate hope of winning this state. They’re staffing up, they’re going to fight for it,” said Prof Larry Jacobs, a political expert at the University of Minnesota. “Donald Trump has been very, very effective in using race, and putting a hex on these four congresswomen, to rally Republicans and conservatives. He did it in 2016 and he’s doing it again.”