Trump tries to divide and conquer his way to looking less racist

Donald Trump’s whole campaign has been based on the idea that white people should embrace fear of and anger at immigrants, Muslims, non-white people, protesters—and he’s found an audience for that. He’s facing a tougher audience as he tries to run the same divide-and-conquer move on people of color and to broaden his appeal with white women, blaming immigrants for the problems of African Americans and Latinos, or trying to reach out to LGBT voters by scapegoating Muslims. 

Jeremiah Armstrong, 33, of Akron said Trump’s new message to black voters suggests a competition between voters where one really doesn’t exist. Armstrong, a self-employed barber, said the notion that immigrants are taking jobs away from other minorities in the United States does not match with his experience.

“Let me ask you a question: How many black farmworkers do you know? Where around here can you find someone where a Hispanic has come and taken a job?” Armstrong said. “We don’t accept those jobs anyway. I’ve never been offered one, and I’ve never had one taken away from me, so I don’t think that’s the issue.”

Polls showing Trump in abysmal shape with black voters, Latino voters, and women voters suggest his divide and conquer efforts are not meeting with success. That may be okay with Trump, though, since Republicans who don’t want to look racist are the real audience for his supposed pivot. At this point, though, you’d have to be actively looking for an excuse to find him acceptably not-racist to believe any of what he’s saying. Which … may describe some number of the “moderate” Republicans Trump is hoping to sway.

Say no to Trump extra convincingly by giving Hillary Clinton $3.