Trump leveraging identity politics as a key campaign strategy: analysis

Far-right House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has cautioned fellow Republicans against using racial or gender-based attacks on 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, urging them to keep their criticism policy-based. But former President Donald Trump has been drawing widespread criticism for falsely claiming, during a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) discussion in Chicago on July 31, that Harris has suddenly rediscovered her Black heritage.

Trump remarked, "I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"

But in fact, Harris has had a lot to say about her ethnic background over the years, noting that she had a Jamaican father and an Indian mother.

READ MORE: Vance is something far worse than 'weird'

In a scathing article published on August 5, Salon's Amanda Marcotte emphasizes that Trump's comments were no "gaffe," but rather, show that racial identity politics are Trump's "principle campaign strategy."

"It's been long-documented, if not publicized enough, that Trump has an unsettling obsession with racial 'purity' and eugenics," Marcotte warns. "It's not something he bothers to hide, as evidenced by his claims that non-white immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country'…. In the same week he appointed himself the arbiter of Harris' race, he also decided he could strip her husband, Doug Emhoff, of his Jewishness."

Marcotte adds, "In an interview with a right-wing radio host, Trump agreed that Emhoff is a 'crappy Jew' because he married Harris."

The Salon journalist draws a parallel between Trump's attack on Harris during the NABJ discussion and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), obsessing over "childless cat ladies."

READ MORE: 'Politically stupid': GOP leaders warn 'Trump may have just lost Georgia'

"No wonder Trump picked Vance, despite so many warnings from other Republicans that the Ohio senator was bad news," Marcotte writes. "Both men express contempt for people whose body or identity doesn't conform to their exceedingly narrow views of what it 'should' be…. Most Americans find this obsessive policing of other people's bodies and identities gross, even if they don't know its deeper fascist history."

READ MORE: Trump allies accuse Kellyanne Conway of aggressively 'undermining' JD Vance

Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.