Donald Trump’s campaign has been surrounded by his idea of “Making America Great Again” that he prides himself on every chance that he gets. He blames a great amount of why America isn’t as great as it could be, on trade with China. The record of U.S. free trade policies for working and middle-class America reveals havoc, not benefit. For example, total U.S. employment since NAFTA and China trade the past two decades has witnessed a loss of more than 6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs.  This in fact has a lot to do with the working class, because Trump has argued that he has plans to bring jobs back to the states. It is very clear that Trump has won over many of the hearts of the working class that includes a high concentration of white, male, middle aged, non-college educated, working class voters,  by attacking current U.S. trade policies.

The issue here is whether or not Trump is truly serious about making changes to the U.S. free trade policies. He’s been using the symbolic world view as a rhetorical strategy when discussing policies especially ones connected with China. This is a great tactic in his defense to gather voters in the manufacturing field  because of his advocation of trying to implement harsh trade restrictions on China. However, his businessman persona contradicts his current rhetoric against trade because so many of his Trump products are produced in many other countries, including China. In order to be effective, however, Trump must demonstrate that he has a realistic and effective plan to actually see all of his ideas through, not just making empty promises. Although, his rhetorical strategy may have won over the hearts of some, but not all of America agrees with his plan here.

 

Image: http://www.theindependent.com/opinion/cartoons/bruce-plante-cartoon-trump-and-outsourcing/image_289def12-3fca-11e6-be78-d3d432d84284.html

Majority of the white working class is women, and lately they have not been on the bandwagon with the rest of the working class. Trump hasn’t had the best reputation and relationship with women prior to and during this election. His misogynist behavior and comments have been the leading cause of Trump’s lack of support among white working class women. During the first debate between the two presidential candidates, Clinton mentioned a number of instances where Trump degraded women by humiliating a teenage beauty queen and fat shaming Alicia Machado on FOX News. These instances don’t make Trump look good at all for most voters.

According to politico.com, “if you look at the white working class, Americans without a college degree, the majority, 53 percent, are women.” This rhetorically doesn’t make sense for Trump because he should be doing everything in his power to win over the votes of the working class women. During the third and final debate, Clinton interrupted Trump fewer than five times and Trump interrupted her more than 40 times. It’s clear that Trump feels a sense of superiority over women by constantly demeaning them. What’s also interesting about Trump is his refusal to talk about the sexual assault allegations against him from nine women. Instead of addressing the issue and engaging in a conversation about sexual assault and harassment, Trump said that he’d rather not talk about it. This was interesting because one would think that Trump would at least want to clear his name on the subject matter.

 

Image: http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/donald-trump-cartoons

If no one is completely over Donald Trump yet, President Obama definitely is. Lately, President Obama has been doing everything in his power to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the frontrunner in this debate. For most of his speeches that he’s made lately, he has been targeting the working class to ensure that they do not place Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “This is a guy who spent all his time hanging around, trying to convince everybody he was a global elite … and flying around everywhere and all he had time for was celebrities,” Obama said. “Suddenly he’s going to be the champion of working people?” “Come on, man,” Obama said with a sardonic laugh.. Although Donald Trump may very well not be the best candidate to become our next President, he is definitely a rhetorical pro. His rhetoric skills have by far been his biggest asset in this election and could very well be the reason why he has majority of the white working class on his back.

What Trump does very well in this election is his use of rhetorical skills and figures of speech to sound like a real person. This has helped him by far in the election because he has been able to grab and keep the attention of the people, especially the working class, whether they are for him or not. The best speeches are memorable and persuasive, and whether or not one agrees with Trump and his ideas, it cannot be denied that he does just that whether the things he says evoke the worst or best emotions in people.

 

Image: http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/donald-trump-cartoons

During the first debate between the two presidential candidates, Clinton mentioned a number of instances where Trump degraded women by humiliating a teenage beauty queen and fat shaming Alicia Machado on FOX News. Not only did she call him out on these things but, she also appealed to the working class by doing so by discrediting the fact that Trump is worth billions because of his tax returns. With that, it’s been very interesting to witness Trump and his attempt to come back from this Clinton Trap. Trump’s rhetorical style is highly visceral where he responds to things by coming from strong emotion and not from a logical standpoint. This doesn’t put Trump in a strong place when trying to appeal to voters because voters are looking for content in the things that he says in order to be able to trust him.

Trump definitely has some of the white-working class on his back, but in order to completely get people on his side he’s definitely going to have to expand his rhetorical range. He’s a hothead and it shows with specific instances where he lashes out, but he may need to tone it down a bit in order to be looked at as a more trustworthy candidate. Many working class voters and voters period fear that he is not going to be able to be handle the demands of this country because of his temper. Once he makes changes in the way he comes across to white-working class voters, he may have all of them on his side.

 

 

Image: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-10-04/hillary-clinton-is-wooing-donald-trumps-base-of-white-working-class-voters

The guy that we all know to brag about his wealth has been under the fire for his rhetoric with working class voters.  Trump’s rhetoric so far in the election with working class has been racially charged and highly nativistic. Trump has been targeting what he believes to be the working class as only white males, when the working class consists of far more than that. Today, the dynamics of our working class includes not only whites but important voters of the working class also include African Americans and immigrants. Trump’s entire campaign represents the economic despair and racial anxiety that are felt by white working class men. His rhetoric has been completely against minorities arguing that Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists and suggesting that there should be a temporary ban on Muslim immigration.

Because Trump has narrowed his view on who the working class actually is, this in a way could help the working class votes for the Democratic Party. During Obama’s speech during a rally in Philadelphia, while Clinton was recovering from pneumonia, he questions working class supporters on letting someone like Donald Trump become the next “champion”of our county. “This is a guy who spent 70 years on this earth showing no concern for working people. He spent most of his life trying to stay far away from working people. He wasn’t going to let you on his golf course,” Obama said.  According to Obama, he describes Trump as a fake-working class hero. It will be interesting to see in the future how or if Trump will change his rhetoric to gain more of the working class vote.

 

Image: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/12-trump-cartoons-smile

 

Donald Trump believes that he is appealing to working class voters, but his appeal to them is more along the lines of a populist movement. He is pitching them against the establishment (the rich, educated people) using a divide and conquer strategy he is using to make them feel important like he is the only one fighting for them. He uses the rhetorical strategy of basing his campaign on fear trying to convince the working class that our current economy has no room for them and that this is heavily due to the fact that diversity, immigration, and globalization are the cause for it all. Although his words may have been appealing and holding weight with some voters, for many of the working class this tactic has not been working.

White Working Class in the Rust Belt

The primaries held in Mid-western states, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan, all of which are very important swing states show that Donald Trump is not doing very well in that region as far as holding onto the working class vote. “A 2016 race between Clinton and Trump could devolve principally into a pitched battle for the Rust Belt,” the Washington Post’s Dan Balz predicted in March. According to the chart, Trump’s support only constitutes 26- 30 % of working class voters in these three Rust Belt States and this demonstrates that Trump’s candidacy could also be considered the Democrats’ first major opportunity to gain more support among the white working class voters.