Mandela, Harris ... Do Donald Trump's words serve his campaign?
Washington Salem, September 8.
Donald Trump supporters watch presidential Air Force One approach for the rally.
Sean Rayford / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
During a meeting in North Carolina on Tuesday evening, September 8, Donald Trump attacked the running mate of Joe Biden, of Indian and Jamaican origin.
An almost customary attack, at least strategic for the candidate for his succession.
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During a campaign rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump attacked with virulence Kamala Harris, running mate of his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
“
People don't like him.
Nobody likes him,
”he said to an enthusiastic crowd,
mockingly insisting on his first name“
Kamala
”
.
“
She could never become the first female president.
Never.
It would be an insult to our country,
”he added, referring to the one who could write a new chapter in American history by becoming the first woman to become vice-president.
Comments that come in the midst of controversy for comments he would have made about the first black South African president, Nelson Mandela, according
to the forthcoming book by Michael Cohen
, the former lawyer of Donald Trump.
Offensive remarks according to the ANC
, the African National Congress, the ruling party in South Africa.
Words which border on racism and which are in line with the discourse he has been holding for several years, analyzes Simon Grivet, lecturer in the history and civilization of the United States at the University of Lille: “
He digs the furrow which is his since 2015. He always made xenophobic remarks, on the border of what one could qualify as properly racist, a bit like what Jean-Marie Le Pen was doing in the years 1980-1990 in France.
It is a determined and clear strategy for him, and he continues because he is convinced that his only way out to win next November will be to mobilize the white popular masses, those who feel under siege, who no longer voted or no longer voted much. and to whom he manages to talk very well.
Because Donald Trump is first and foremost a television character.
It gives them what they expect: a discourse that is readily racist and absolutely not sensitive to the diversity of the American population.
When he speaks on topics that seem mundane,
like footballers kneeling
during the national anthem, which are cultural markers, he is immediately understood.
"
► Reread:
On the front page: Donald Trump, “a rabid racist”
(2019)
So will the strategy be able to work again?
“
According to the polls - and this is the big question that pollsters are asking themselves - a priori it does not work: it is left behind everywhere.
But there are still people who recall that in 2016, we were in much the same scenario: everyone was giving Clinton an overwhelming chance to win and we saw these famous phantom Trumpist voters appearing in the United States. keys.
White people, sometimes former Democrats, who did not tell pollsters they were going to vote Trump, voted Trump well and helped him win the three key states by tens of thousands of votes.
So it can work, even if I have little faith in it because I think there will be a mobilization opposite which will be much higher.
"
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