Tag: Trump voters

Trump’s delusions are about to blow up in his own voters’ faces

The following commentary by Greg Sargent was posted on the Washington Post website July 9, 2018:

THE MORNING PLUM:

Credit: Carolyn Kaster AP/em>

With the exception of the big, beautiful wall that is already being built on the southern border (in President Trump’s mind, anyway), the issue that taps most directly into the most visceral strains of Trumpism is his escalating trade war with China. Given how often he preens about his “toughness” toward China before roaring, worshipful rally crowds, it’s hard to see how he’ll back down, no matter what the consequences.

Numbers provided to me by the Brookings Institution suggest that those consequences will most directly impact the counties that voted for Trump. Indeed, the numbers show that China has taken aggressive steps to sharpen its targeting of Trump counties in the latest round of retaliatory tariffs it just announced.

This morning, Politico reports on the backstory leading up to Trump’s trade war. Trump has been ranting for decades about other countries “ripping off” the United States on trade. Now that hostilities are escalating, Politico notes that Trump has “no clear exit strategy and no explicit plans to negotiate new rules of the road with China, leaving the global trade community and financial markets wracked with uncertainty.” But Trump loyalists say he’s playing a long game and won’t buckle. As Stephen K. Bannon puts it, Trump “has preached a confrontation with China for 30 years,” making this a “huge moment” that pits “Trump against all of Wall Street.”

View the complete commentary on the Washington Post website here.

Trump’s older white voters are ditching the GOP

The following article by Kaili Joy Gray was posted on the ShareBlue website April 9, 2018:

If Republicans can’t even count on older white voters, they’ve got no hope this November.

Credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Republican prospects this November are so bad that some are already writing off the House and worrying about trying to hold on to the Senate.

And now there’s more evidence of trouble ahead: Their base of older, educated white voters is abandoning them.

A new Reuters poll shows a stunning 12-point swing, which Reuters calls “one of the largest shifts in support toward Democrats” in the past two years. And it’s not as if there are large untapped demographics where Republicans could make up the difference. Continue reading “Trump’s older white voters are ditching the GOP”

They voted for Donald Trump. Now soybean farmers could get slammed by the trade war he started.

The following article by Caitlin Dewey was posted on the Washington Post website April 5, 2018:

China imposed tariffs on 128 U.S. goods on April 2. The move is retaliation for tariffs President Trump announced on Chinese aluminum and steel. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Bret Davis voted for Donald Trump in 2016, as did many of his fellow farmers in central Ohio. But as a brewing Chinese trade war begins to threaten U.S. exports, Davis fears his fifth-generation farm will suffer.

The farm, where Davis and his stepson grow 1,300 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat for Ritz crackers, may not withstand the long-term drop in crop prices a trade war could bring, Davis said. And although he supports President Trump’s goal of making foreign trade more “balanced,” he’s increasingly concerned that Trump’s methods could harm the rural Americans who helped put him in office. Continue reading “They voted for Donald Trump. Now soybean farmers could get slammed by the trade war he started.”

4 Key Personality Traits Trump Supporters Share With Their Beloved Leader

The following article by Liz Posner was posted on the AlterNet website April 1, 2018:

Trump and the #MAGA set have a lot in common.

Signs reading “Make America First Again” during the RNCon in Cleveland Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Surprise, surprise: members of the #MAGA set are a lot like Trump himself. We already know that many of Trump’s supporters are prejudiced, authoritarian, and selfish. Now, a new study shows that Trump voters have even more in common with the president than already thought.

In addition to his megalomania, misogyny, racism, and tacky taste in home decor, a few obvious characteristics define Donald Trump: he’s selfish, seeks power over others, is preoccupied with wealth, and prefers conformity and tradition. These four are all traits commonly found in his supporters, as Ryne A. Sherman, a psychology professor at Texas Tech University, shows in a new study. Continue reading “4 Key Personality Traits Trump Supporters Share With Their Beloved Leader”

Many Trump voters who got hurricane relief in Texas aren’t sure Puerto Ricans should

The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website October 20, 2017:

Junk haulers take from items ruined by floodwaters at the Houston home of Rosie Alvarez, right. (Michael Stravato for The Washington Post)

HOUSTON — Sitting on Mary Maddox’s back porch, which flooded with 22 inches of water when Hurricane Harvey hit nearly two months ago, is a Lady of the Night plant from Puerto Rico that a friend gave her. Ever since Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, she says, she has paused at the blooming plant when she passes it, rubbing a leaf and saying a prayer for those still without water or electricity.

Often, the prayer is accompanied by frustration with President Trump, whom she voted for and who visited this neighborhood after Harvey.

“He really made me mad,” said Maddox, 70, who accused Trump of trying to pit those on the mainland against Puerto Ricans, even though they’re all Americans. Continue reading “Many Trump voters who got hurricane relief in Texas aren’t sure Puerto Ricans should”

Heartland Voters Are Waking Up To Trump’s Long Con

The following article by Gene Lyons was posted on the National Memo website July 26, 2017:

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

— James Thurber

Out here in flyover country, you can’t hardly go by the feed store without running into a reporter doing one of those Wisdom of the Heartland stories. Seems like they could have saved themselves a bunch of trouble by listening to a Hank Williams, Jr.album instead. Continue reading “Heartland Voters Are Waking Up To Trump’s Long Con”

It’s time to bust the myth: Most Trump voters were not working class.

The following article by Nicholas Carnes and Loam Lupu was posted on the Washington Post website June 5, 2017:

Then-candidate Donald Trump appears at a campaign rally in Charlotte in October 2016. (European Pressphoto Agency/ERIK S. LESSER)

Media coverage of the 2016 election often emphasized Donald Trump’s appeal to the working class. The Atlantic said that “the billionaire developer is building a blue-collar foundation.” The Associated Press wondered what “Trump’s success in attracting white, working-class voters” would mean for his general election strategy. On Nov. 9, the New York Times front-page article about Trump’s victory characterized it as “a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters.” Continue reading “It’s time to bust the myth: Most Trump voters were not working class.”

Racism motivated Trump voters more than authoritarianism

The following article by Thomas Wood was posted on the Washington Post website April 17, 2017:

A voter casts a ballot in Georgetown, Wis., on Nov. 8, 2016. (Nicki Kohl/Telegraph Herald via AP)

During the 2016 presidential campaign, many observers wondered exactly what motivated voters most: Was it income? Authoritarianism? Racial attitudes?

Let the analyses begin. Last week, the widely respected 2016 American National Election Study was released, sending political scientists into a flurry of data modeling and chart making.

The ANES has been conducted since 1948, at first through in-person surveys, and now also online, with about 1,200 nationally representative respondents answering some questions for about 80 minutes. This incredibly rich, publicly funded data source allows us to put elections into historical perspective, examining how much each factor affected the vote in 2016 compared with other recent elections. Continue reading “Racism motivated Trump voters more than authoritarianism”

Trump’s Budget Endangers Those It Claims To Help The Most

The following article by Leo Gerard was posted on the National Memo website March 26, 2017:

After the president issued a budget last week slashing and burning environmental, labor and educational programs, the guy responsible for the thing, Mick Mulvaney, contended those financial massacres are the heart’s desire of the “steelworker in Ohio, the coal-mining family in West Virginia, the mother of two in Detroit.”

Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, asserted that members of my union, the United Steelworkers (USW), coal miners and urban parents are eager to kill off Public Broadcasting’s Big Bird, to drink lead-laden water, to breathe cough-inducing air and to work among life-threatening dangers. Continue reading “Trump’s Budget Endangers Those It Claims To Help The Most”

Trump and GOP have it in for their own voters: Jason Sattler

The following article by James Sattler was posted on the USA Today website March 15, 2017:

Democrats can either wait their turn to punish them, or win some back with empathy.

Liberals who want to punish Trump voters need to get in line behind President Trump and the GOP.

The American Health Care Act introduced by House Republicans last week and swiftly endorsed by the White House appears to have been designed to hurt Trump voters — at least the vast majority of them who are older, live in rural areas and take in less than $250,000 a year in investment income. Continue reading “Trump and GOP have it in for their own voters: Jason Sattler”