He was impeached twice, found liable in fraud and sexual abuse lawsuits, convicted of dozens of felonies and has been declared politically dead again and again — but count Donald Trump out at your peril.
With just over a week to go until his third presidential election — and a little over three months after he was literally shot at — the Republican tycoon’s political stamina is as robust as ever.
The 78-year-old has emerged from a summer of missteps and a lurch into authoritarian rhetoric with better odds of securing a second White House term than at any point since that July assassination attempt in a field in Pennsylvania.
Trump detractors have watched the unforced errors in his 2024 campaign with a mix of delight, frustration and bewilderment as the man whose downfall has long been predicted has managed to keep his supporters on board.
Depending on who you ask, Trump’s biggest fumbles have been a divisive vice-presidential pick, a laissez-faire attitude to his daily campaign work and an excessive focus on outgoing president Biden.
Trump’s own words have, as ever, been extraordinary — from wild conspiracy theories about immigrants eating people’s pets and lies about hurricanes to authoritarian threats of revenge against his opponents.
– Secret sauce –
And then there’s what Democrats have labelled the “weird” stuff — the personal insults and name-calling, rambling interviews and rally speeches, and a campaign event that ended with Trump swaying onstage to music for 40 minutes.
The oldest major-party presidential candidate ever, Trump is out on bail in two criminal cases that could mean him seeing out his days in jail and in theory he is due to be sentenced in a third just after the election.
And yet the race remains a toss-up, with a trend line moving incrementally in Trump’s favor that suggests he is weathering Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s warnings that he is unfit for office.
For some analysts, Trump’s secret sauce is his ability to play the part of the heroic outsider — targeted by corrupt elites for his insurgent campaign to shake up politics on behalf of the forgotten millions.
Political consultant Andrew Koneschusky sees four planks to Trump’s campaign — an appeal to rudderless young men, exploitation of anger over inflation, the weaponization of race and gender and the scapegoating of immigrants.
“Trump’s campaign strategy relies heavily on tapping into negative emotions, which typically register more strongly than positive ones,” said the analyst, a former press secretary to Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
“In some cases, this is distasteful or revolting. For some voters it might also be effective.”
– ‘Avenging angel’ –
Donald Nieman, a political analyst and professor at Binghamton University in New York state, believes Trump’s unorthodox conduct — the “rants, conspiracy theories, vulgarities, unvarnished racist and sexist attacks” — thrill a base that sees Trump as their “avenging angel.”
“Many others hold their noses and support him because they believe he will be better on issues they care about — the economy, immigration, abortion,” Nieman said.
Dubbed “Teflon Don” by US headline writers, Trump has a salesman’s instinct for self-publicity, honed in his days as a brash 1980s New York developer trying to force his way into the celebrity gossip columns.
And while liberals and much of the media look at Trump’s unorthodox, freewheeling style — his rally speeches about windmills and fictional serial killers — as disqualifying, his fans see authenticity.
Utah-based political analyst and PR expert Adrienne Uthe believes Trump and his base share an emotional connection missing in most political campaigns, as he taps into their patriotism, distrust of the media and fear of losing their culture.
“His supporters see him as a champion against what they perceive as a corrupt establishment. Despite controversies, Trump frames himself as a fighter, unyielding in the face of opposition,” she told AFP.
“Many of his followers admire this resilience, viewing him as someone who defends their values and disrupts a political system they believe has ignored them for decades.”
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