Trump Should Flee the Swamp and
Huddle with Blacks, Hispanics and...
The president cannot get reelected solely by pumping up Trumpniks until they explode. He also must reassure swing voters and lure converts.
Road trip!
As impeachaholic Democrats grow drunk on Ukrainian horilka, President Donald J. Trump should flee Animal House — better known as Washington, D.C. Rather than fume in the Oval Office and trade barbs with those who despise him, Trump should leave town and reacquaint himself with The American People — namely folks outside the alligator- and snake-filled Potomac swamp.
Addressing massive rallies surely would comfort Trump. Who could blame him for surrounding himself with adoring fans instead of seething foes who want him in solitary confinement?
But Trump needs more than just his GOP base and its 87 percent job approval, as Gallup reported Thursday. Trump cannot get reelected solely by pumping up Trumpniks until they explode. He also must reassure swing voters and lure converts. Thus, until Nov. 3, 2020, Trump should spend maximum time among black, Jewish, and Hispanic voters. Atop Trump’s good news for all Americans, he has plenty to share specifically with these citizens.
Trump should remind black voters that his tax reductions and regulatory relief have fueled an economic boom that cut black unemployment in August to 5.5 percent — an all-time low. The black poverty rate fell to 20.8 percent, a record low. Criminal-justice reform has helped nonviolent, disproportionately black, convicts take their first steps from mass incarceration into society. Trump’s roughly 9,000 Opportunity Zones are fueling entrepreneurship, growth, and jobs in low-income, largely black neighborhoods. Trump has promoted school choice and offered unprecedented assistance to America’s 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“We’ll never win the black vote!” myopic Republican strategists predictably retort.
Trump and other Republicans should ignore these “experts.” They should stipulate that 80 percent of blacks will tell Trump, “Go to hell, Whitey!” But if the other 20 percent say: “Thank you for asking politely. You have our votes,” Trump will win handily. Democrats cannot spare such a huge chunk of their base.
Ron DeSantis’s experience in Florida is extremely instructive. How did he, a white Republican, beat Andrew Gillum, a black Democrat? (Gillum is far-left. But, unlike Georgia’s highly grating Stacey Adams, he seems all sweetness and light. This wolf fits perfectly in his bespoke sheep’s clothing.) DeSantis promised black “school-choice moms” expanded educational options for their kids. On Election Day, DeSantis took 8 percent of the black-male vote, but 18 percent of the black-female vote, or some 100,000 votes. DeSantis won by 32,463. So, black women sent this conservative to the governor’s mansion.
EVERY Republican candidate — from president to precinct captain — should follow DeSantis’s example.
Trump has great news for Jewish voters, too. He acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there, from Tel Aviv. He recognized the long-disputed Golan Heights as Israeli. Trump signed the Taylor Force Act, which bars aid to the Palestinian Authority, so long as it rewards terrorists who attack Jews. Trump frequently slams anti-Semitism. Democrats stammer rather than spurn Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Women’s March co-founder Linda Sarsour, and other Jew haters in their midst.
Trump also should engage Hispanics. They are savoring record-low joblessness (4.2 percent in August) and poverty (17.6 percent). This largely Catholic population should welcome Trump’s pro-life policies. He also should stress how his immigration efforts boot MS-13 killers from America’s barrios, protect legal immigrants, and block illegal aliens until they apply for visas — as did millions of law-abiding U.S. Hispanics.
As Trump embraces these Americans, he also calms “nervous whites.”
“Wow!” such a voter might think. “Trump’s listening at a black-owned business. Look! He’s scoring applause at a synagogue. Whaaaaaat? He’s kissing Hispanic babies. The media lied again. He is not a racist. So, I’ll vote for Trump, since doing so will not make me a racist.”
Trump need not win all of these skittish voters. If 5,000 of them secured New Hampshire and 8,000 of them attained Minnesota, this would add 14 electoral votes to Trump’s total. Likewise, marginal gains among, say, blacks in Philadelphia, Jews in Naples, and Hispanics in Albuquerque could capture Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Mexico. In a squeaker, these slight advantages could spell victory.
Ukrainegate already is sputtering. Initial claims that Trump blackmailed President Volodymyr Zelensky into probing Joe Biden proved hyperbolic. Regardless, unhinged Democrats would investigate rumors that Donny Trump, 7, once misallocated his lunch money and bought candy. While Democrats squander their House majority and drown themselves in Trump hatred, the president of the United States should invite black, Jewish, Hispanic, and other voters to help him make America even greater