A fan of tackling and excessive provocation, Donald Trump has found himself a new target, his opponent for the presidential election Kamala Harris. In his entourage, this aggressiveness is starting to irritate.
Donald Trump has made insults and outrageousness his trademarks. Already in the early 2010s, he had attacked the foundations of Barack Obama’s citizenship, claiming that the then president was not born in the United States. The latter ended up presenting his birth certificate to silence the rumor. Same thing in 2017, when he ran against Hillary Clinton, the man who was still only a wealthy businessman and reality TV star accused the Democrat of “being the most corrupt candidate who has ever run for president of the United States.” Faced with Joe Biden, in 2020, Trump, who was then running for another term, took the same line.
Between his repeated attacks and his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump even ended up being banned from Twitter. The 45th President of the United States is, however, back on the social network led by one of his most fervent supporters, Elon Musk. But this year, in the race for the White House, Donald Trump has reached a new level in insults and contempt for his opponents. In June, the Republican candidate called Joe Biden an “old piece of shit” and a “bad guy” during a private conversation (which was eventually leaked) recorded while he was playing golf, before continuing: “I took him out of the race and that means we get Kamala. I think she’ll be better. But she’s also so bad. She’s so pathetic.”
A rhetoric of assumed insult
On this, Donald Trump was not mistaken, the vice president has indeed taken over from Joe Biden, who was largely distanced in the polls and called to withdraw because of his age. But rather than a blow to his campaign, the Republican saw in the arrival of Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, a new opportunity to use bird names. On several occasions he publicly attacked her in outrageous language, calling her “the most incompetent, the most unpopular and the most left-wing vice president in American history” and a future “toy” for international leaders.
The billionaire also attacks the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration record, calling his new opponent the “border czar” and regularly declares that Kamala Harris wants to “destroy” America. But for many people, including some among his allies, Donald Trump goes too far when he attacks Kamala Harris by calling her, in a meeting, “crazy”, “stupid as a rock”. “She was a bum 3 weeks ago” also said Trump in reference to the Democrat’s entry into the campaign, in front of his supporters.
Trump loses significant support among allies
A line was crossed when Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris’s black identity, suggesting she was a foreigner and “was Indian all the way” before “suddenly turning around” and “becoming a black person.” Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have advised their candidate to stop attacking Harris over her identity, but he has ignored them. “I have a right to make personal attacks,” he told reporters. “I have to do it my way.”
The problem for Donald Trump is that doing things his “way” is starting to cost him significant support. Within the Republican Party, George W. Bush’s former vice president, Dick Cheney, recently declared that he would vote for Kamala Harris, as did his daughter, Liz Cheney, also a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Trump’s impeachment after the attack on the Capitol. Republican Adam Kinzinger struck a major blow by speaking at Kamala Harris’ inauguration, to assure her of his support. These three big names join the long list of Republican figures hostile to Trump. As a reminder, only half of the members of his former presidential cabinet support him in his battle to regain the White House, a first.