Trump and allies seek to turn America’s chaos to his advantage – By Tribune News Service (South China Morning Post) / Aug 31 2020
- US president has cast American cities as under siege by violence and lawlessness
- Democrats accuse Trump of inflaming tensions and inciting violence to benefit his campaign
US President Donald Trump and his allies sought to depict protests over racial injustice as a law-and-order campaign issue by attacking Democratic leaders, refusing to condemn deadly vigilante violence and touting a purportedly tranquil “Donald Trump’s America” as his opponents accused him of inciting violence for political gain.
Against the backdrop of a still-raging coronavirus outbreak, the White House offered the clearest signal yet of a calculated Republican strategy of exploiting voter fears of violence as the campaign against Democratic rival Joe Biden enters the final stretch.
The strategy closely resembles the one Trump employed, unsuccessfully, in the 2018 midterm elections, when he spent weeks warning of “caravans” of migrants trying to reach the US border with Mexico.
That approach failed to stave off large Democratic gains in congressional races, but Trump has returned to it this year as he continues to lag behind Biden in polls of the presidential race.
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