#To win in 2020, Trump needs to quell America’s disruption

All Americans today — no matter our age, place of residence, skin color or economic standing — have felt the forces of disruption over the past few months. Beginning with a deadly pandemic and followed by protests and riots over the death of George Floyd in police custody, we are a nation roiled by change, anger and fear.

But one person who’s been most impacted by these forces is the man known for being a disruptive force himself: President Trump.

In 2016, Trump won in part for his promise to turn the establishment class upside down. He pledged to shake up institutions that had failed Americans for generations with repeated false promises, and corporations that had become culturally disconnected from their customers in their attempts to appeal to a “woke” mob of millennials.

Trump’s election worked: American politics was disrupted.

But now the president faces a problem. As recent events — mostly beyond his control — shake up the US more than we ever could have imagined, how does The Great Disruptor quell our country’s disruption?

“His instinct is to disrupt the current state of affairs, whether that is trade with Mexico and Canada, or more general foreign relations with both our friends and our foes … [And] he has near absolute faith in his ability to fix what he may have inadvertently broken,” said Paul Sracic, political science professor at Youngstown State University.

“Unfortunately for President Trump, the skills of a bomb thrower — courage, boldness, audacity — are very different from the precision, calmness and attention to detail needed to stop any more damage from occurring,” Sracic added. “Swing voters — often older, suburban and female — don’t want a bomb thrower: They want to call the bomb squad, someone to defuse the various crises.”

Trump’s electoral base remains perfectly happy with how the president is fighting fire with fire. One of them is Don Hakes, a 52-year-old semi-


retired construction worker, who appreciated Trump’s disruptive skills in 2016 and firmly believes they are exactly what is called for in this moment.

“Outside of toning it down on Twitter, he’s doing just great,” Hakes said.

But elections are won not just by energizing a base but also by winning the ambivalent middle. An astounding 91 percent of Republicans surveyed in a new Gallup poll say they approve of how Trump is handling his job, while 33 percent of independents and just 2 percent of Democrats feel the same. According to a new Quinnipiac poll, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leads with independent voters, who back him 51 percent compared to 34 percent for Trump.

John DeRosier, a 75-year-old resident of Eau Claire, Wis., is one such ambivalent voter. A lifelong Democrat, DeRosier became so disgusted with his local party’s treatment of veterans and their attitudes toward police officers, he switched to the Republican Party two months ago. But he doesn’t like the president, mainly because of his inability to bring people together during a crisis.

“He keeps wanting to break things, and that’s fine when needed, but what we need now is for him to bring us together over a shared cause,” DeRosier said.

Sracic said the president’s July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore is an example of how he might find a middle ground, appealing to an electorate yearning for peace and stability. With paeans to our Founding Fathers and the story of our country’s birth, Trump took advantage of the venue to remind Americans of their remarkable common heritage, declaring that:

“We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King, when he said that the Founders had signed ‘a promissory note’ to every future generation. Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals. … He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage.”

In a country as diverse as the United States, this was an important message, because our sense of unity is not based on a shared ethnicity but on a shared story — a story whose first chapter was penned by Thomas Jefferson in the opening paragraphs of the Declaration — and is the glue that holds us together, Sracic said.

“Retelling the details of that story, and weaving in more contemporary figures such as Dr. King, is something that Trump has never really done before,” Sracic said. “It was very effective.”

Elections are won with an aspirational message, encouraging people to be part of something bigger than themselves: “Make America Great Again” did that, “Law and Order” does not.

DeRosier said he’d be more willing to give Trump “a chance” if he stopped talking so much about himself and focused more on the issues that bring Americans together.

“I think he really needs to get a grasp on how to communicate how we as a country face this coronavirus pandemic together,” DeRosier said. “That would be a start. Then I’d give him another look.”

Salena Zito is the author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” (Crown Forum), out now.