And although it is rooted in its character and its ideological core, its campaign tone is also a Hail Mary.
Trump has been stripped of the automotive economy on which he planned to anchor his claims of a return to American greatness by a pandemic that could have enhanced the "I Alone Can Fix It" leadership skills he boasted four years ago. Instead, the crisis revealed its chaos-based method of governance, constructing alternative political realities, ignoring science and repeatedly lying about easily provable facts.
By condemning efforts to lower the Confederate flag, by describing a nation locked in a dark feudal struggle against rampant crime, unrest, and "far-left fascism," Trump is not only waging the most demagogic, most polarizing and the most baiting breed in modern America history. He is betting that the strange political insight that fueled his 2016 campaign will once again triumph over an industry of political consultants, anxious Republican lawmakers and media experts who see his approval ratings overwritten and his polls showing him hanging around in the battlefield states like the throes of a doomed campaign. .
If it damages American fabric, so be it.
Trump cuts against the tide
Trump's high-risk approach goes against normally cautious racialized institutions that have made their own decision to change course after finding in some cases that continued resistance to chance was bad for business and their brands.
NASCAR, the popular racing circuit in the conservative south, banned the Confederate flag and stood behind one of its few black drivers - causing a scorching Trump attack on Twitter on Monday. The Mississippi Legislature has passed a bill to cut the stars and bars from its state flag. And the Washington Redskins, who have disputed for years that their famous emblem is racist, are thinking about a new name - a sign of the NFL's tsunami of change after Colin Kaepernick knelt down to protest police brutality.
But against this sudden and brutal cultural change, Trump, as he has so often done in the career of a player in real estate and entertainment, is betting counterintuitively.
He hoped for another four years that his silent majority of voters in rural swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin as well as suburban swing voters would respond to his warnings. Trump claims that the collapse of the statues - not only of Confederate rulers - but of more traditional historical figures with racial attitudes now discredited means that American (white) culture and history are under attack.
It is a strategy that exposes some of the nation's most sensitive political arguments, is sure to break the last semblance of unity for the next president and could spill over into national politics for years to come.
Patriotism of exclusion
The tightening of Trump's electoral strategy was clearly explained by the way he used the weekend of July 4, Independence Day - previously one of the few non-partisan moments in America - as a long version the end of the electoral rallies that were hindered by the coronavirus.
In a fearful speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump described the multiracial protesters who took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd as an explosion of radical, Marxist anarchy from those who want to "end America." By exploding a new "far-left fascism which demands absolute allegiance", he warned that those who did not speak his language risk being "banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished".
In fact, Trump's line was a campaign overeating against what he said to be a politically correct who helped support his 2016 presidential campaign. But his somber, hyperbolic tone reinforced the impression of a spirit authoritarian and ultranationalist which is a strong component of his own politics.
Trump's speeches in South Dakota and the White House before the national fireworks were clever in their own way: they contained many references to the founders, basic American values and Abraham Lincoln, as the foundation on which Trump built his argument that American history was under attack. This has allowed eminent conservative media voices such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the National Review to ignore how the incendiary passage might appear to non-Trump supporters and to praise his weekend deals. as a reinforcement of his greatest speeches.
"The choir of independent media voices understand that Mr. Trump is trying to rally the country in defense of traditional American principles which are now undergoing unprecedented and radical attacks," the Journal wrote in an editorial.
Fox News then took the opportunity to mark the cover of Trump's more explosive remarks as an example of media bias - thus completing the familiar cycle of Trump's basic jokes.
But Trump practices exclusionary patriotism. The impression left by his two speeches is that any American who does not agree with his perception of history or who thinks that the historical consequences of slavery and their legacy in a modern society need to a sober review is not at all an American. Although there has been a tragedy and sporadic unrest on the American streets - six children were killed in armed violence this weekend and there were 44 shots in New York City while several statues were destroyed, the Trump's apocalyptic vision of life in America is not widespread. recognizable.
Another day of racial controversy
Trump might have been wiser to bask in the harsh criticism of the conservative media. But the president cannot remain well enough alone and often quickly puts those who defend him in a delicate situation. Soon, he demanded an apology from the Black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, after a drama in which race officials said that a noose had been found in his team garage. The FBI later concluded that the incident was not a hate crime directed against Wallace.
But Trump accused Wallace of hoaxing and said the stock car series was suffering from its lowest scores ever for prohibiting supporters from bringing Confederate flags to the race tracks.
Thus, Wallace, already in an uncomfortable and vulnerable position - despite the strong and moving support of his comrades - found himself drawn as an unintentional victim in Trump's race-based political campaign. The NASCAR driver then implored his Twitter followers to "always face the hatred that is thrown at you with LOVE! Love over hate every day.
He added, "Even when it is POTUS HATE."
A few hours later, the president ignited new racial controversy. He attacked the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball organizations for considering a name change after years of controversy.
He said the teams were so named to recognize "STRENGTH, not weakness" and added in a nasty racist coup at the end of the tweet: "Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now! "
Then, in a daily press briefing, McEnany refused to denounce the Confederate flag and insisted that Trump "had not given any opinion" on the NASCAR ban.
It was just another day when the President appeared to have gone out of his way to deliberately woo racial controversy.
And given his depressed approval rating - on territory that history says will be difficult for him to win re-election - and his vulnerable position in the swing states he won only by small margins on Hillary Clinton four years ago, he seems to be taking a big risk with his hard swing to the right and the warlike approach to culture.
But just four months before election day, he bet he knows better than anyone the motivations of his base, less affiliated Republican and swing voters and the character of America.
