US President Donald Trump takes to fear tactics in bid to win Midwest

Janesville, October 18

President Donald Trump leaned into fear tactics on Saturday as he accused the Left of trying to “destroy the American way of life” in a late re-election pitch to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin — two Midwestern states that were instrumental to his 2016 victory but may now be slipping from his grasp.

In back-to-back rallies, Trump accused the Left of wanting to “erase American history and purge American values.” He claimed, with no basis, that Democratic rival Joe Biden would put communities at risk.

Trump faces headwinds not only in national polling, which shows Biden leading, but also in key battleground surveys.

His comments come after his campaign, with far less cash than Biden’s, largely retreated from TV advertising in the Midwest, shifting much of its money to Sun Belt states such as Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia, as well as Pennsylvania.

As he tries to energise his base and keep on-the-fence voters from turning against him, Trump sought to paint Democrats as “anti-American radicals” and said moderates had “a moral duty” to join the Republican Party. “The Democrat Party you once knew doesn’t exist,” he said. It was the same on issue after issue, as he claimed in hyperbolic terms that Biden’s election would spur “the single biggest depression in the history of our country” and “turn Michigan into a refugee camp.” Trump has continued to hold rallies despite the Covid threat, which hospitalised him for several days earlier this month.

Trump continued to call on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, to roll back restrictions that remain in place to try to halt the spread of the virus, prompting the crowd to break into a “Lock her up!” chant. — AP