While Donald Trump has been standing up for himself and fighting back against the Access Hollywood tape and the aftermath, he has changed the topic to bring back his base and resume his campaign. Trump has been bringing the topic of discussion back to causes that matter to the working class and has been doing so by utilizing the term “Clinton Machine” to point the finger of blame to Clinton.
The Democrats have a corrupt political machine pushing crooked Hillary Clinton. We have Paul Ryan, always fighting the Republican nominee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
The working class voters care about immigration and trade because that is where they are suffering in this day and age. In a speech in Florida, Trump said “Just look at what this corrupt establishment has done to our cities like Detroit and Flint, Michigan – and rural towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina” which not just highlighted the problems that mattered to these working class voters, but pointed straight to battleground states. What Trump did next was bring it full circle to the Clinton Machine and saying that it “is at the center of this power structure” and is pitting the “economy against the working class.” By turning the tables to topics that matter to his base and giving them a person to hate, Trump took the discussion off of his scandal and spoke of the wrongdoings of Clinton. He spoke of everything she has done against the working class, how she has control of the media and even mentioned the WikiLeaks in great detail.
By shifting the topic to not just how Clinton works against the working class, but how she has complete control and is in the hands of even bigger players, Trump is speaking to his working class voters once again and seems to have gained back his support. Though this seems to be working at the moment, seeing as Republican support has inched back to him, it is also leading to a few laughs with the help of Stephen Colbert (video below).
I think this is very interesting because I was curious as to how Trump would spin and come back from the Access Hollywood tape. I agree that Trump is on his way to gaining the working class’s support, but I also feel as though he needs to be much more effective in trying to do so.
Hadn’t even thought of the “machine” term, that’s a great point. He’s repeatedly portrayed himself as the anti-establishment candidate, and that language is another great example of why. You can also see this strategy in his attempt to win over disaffected Sanders supporters – he is making many of the same arguments against her that Sanders did in the primary.