Washington.- He praises autocrats, hangs out with martial arts stars and his highest compliment is calling someone a “fighter.” Donald Trump is going for the sexist vote in the November elections, and it’s working.
The real estate mogul and former President (2017-2021) long forged an often cartoonish and hyper-masculine image, including, most controversially, boasting about sexual assault.
Now, as the US election looms on 5 November, with Democrat Kamala Harris vying to become the country’s first female president, Trump’s macho powers are being put to the test.
Harris is seeing a surge in female support and has made abortion rights a central campaign theme. Trump, meanwhile, unabashedly targets the part of the electorate that loves cryptocurrencies, the violent mixed martial arts fights of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), and thinks that society has become too feminine and “woke.”
“He speaks to our generation,” said activist Nick Passano, who attended Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, last Friday. The bearded man was in the front row with four other millennial cryptocurrency investors. They are the self-proclaimed Maga Boyz.
“We have to set the tone about what we want our sons to emulate, which is strong, masculine men. And he represents that,” said Passano, 37, one of several men who spoke to AFP about the “manosphere” (a network of collectives, media and communities that promote masculinity) that aligns itself with Trump.
They wore T-shirts with explicit images, such as Trump giving the middle finger, and said they should not put up with “any more nonsense.”
It may seem far-fetched for a 78-year-old billionaire golfer to pose as a bad boy, but Trump knows more about marketing and media presence than any other American politician.
His response after being convicted of 34 felony charges in New York last May was to attend a UFC fight days later, to thunderous applause from the nearly 16,000 spectators.
And during the Republican Convention in July, just days after Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt at a rally, professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt to show off his muscles and hail Trump as a “gladiator.”
Voters, it seems, are paying attention: A new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Trump leading Harris by five points among men, while the current vice president leads among women by 13 points.
Alpha Male
When US President Joe Biden was still in the race for re-election, Trump’s strategy was unequivocal. Although he was barely younger than the Democrat, he criticized him for being weak and senile, and reveled in the beating he gave him during their televised debate in June. This sparked the partisan movement that forced the president to resign as a candidate.
The entry of Harris, 59, chosen by Biden as a replacement, means Trump must face someone much younger. Trump also has to deal with the risk that his brash style will backfire if he has a female and black opponent.
According to Paul Johnson, a communications professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Trump will not change his tone.
The Republican is pushing the “Trumpian vision of the world,” Johnson told AFP: a “nasty” world where “’real Americans’ must be ready to fight for it, to tell uncomfortable and racist truths about the world and, if necessary, to use violence.”
This is reflected in Trump’s frequent social media posts and media outlets with crude and sexualized attacks against Harris and his attempt to play the race card by questioning whether the Democrat is really black.
But for the young people attending the Johnstown rally, that was simply a sign of Trump being fearless.
“I think the fact that he is himself is why I like him so much,” said restaurant worker Wyatt Waszo, 21.
Male discomfort
The sexist movement goes far beyond Trump.
Trump’s claims that Democrats are discarding masculinity and ending male-dominated blue-collar professions like manufacturing and mining resonate in electorally strategic Rust Belt communities.
It’s a message repeated on countless right-wing radio shows and influential podcasts about so-called “male malaise.”
It’s a backlash against globalism and women’s and black rights movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, respectively, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University.
“Trump’s game is to take advantage of voters’ fear of losing what they have,” he said.
A PerryUndem poll conducted by nonpartisan researchers in 2023 shows that 82% of male Republican voters believe that current society punishes men “just for acting like men.”
#Trump #secures #vote #MAGA #men
