Trump is playing to his base in red-state campaign swing. But he’s often been dismissive of those voters

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

It’s been more than 10 years since President Donald Trump quipped , “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

His base isn’t nearly so devoted to him these days. But he still returned to the theme this weekend during one of his many recent stops in deep-red territory where Republicans hope he’ll turn out the base for the November midterms.

“When you stand up here, it’s just like the love ,” Trump said at a rally in Tennessee. “I could say the stupidest things, and you clap. ‘Oh, I love you so.’”

Both comments were couched as jokes, but both also pointed to a perception that Trump is happy to feed: that his base is almost cultishly devoted to him — as if they are unthinking automatons.

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A number of former Trump associates and advisers have said these kinds of comments betray a certain contempt that Trump has for his voters .

And over the years, he has assembled a lengthy volume of comments that could be understood to be similarly dismissive of the base voters who Republicans are pinning their midterm hopes on.

Before Trump’s “Fifth Avenue” comment, he tried out a different version.

“One of the things that came out in the one poll — nobody’s ever leaving me,” he said in New Hampshire in 2016, according to NBC News . “I could be the worst person in the world, they’re not leaving.”

Trump said that even if he did “some really inappropriate things, my people stay.”

“I have the most loyal people — did you ever see that?” Trump said in Sioux Center, Iowa, adding: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

He added: “It’s, like, incredible.”

“Even the really dishonest press says Trump’s people are the most incredible,” he said in Sparks, Nevada , just before the state’s caucuses.

“I mean I had already 68% would not leave under any circumstances,” he added. “I think that means murder. I think it means anything.”

After winning the caucuses, Trump pointed to his superior polling numbers among voters with less formal education, which has been one of his most loyal demographics over the years.

But he rather provocatively called them the “poorly educated” — repeatedly.

“We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated,” Trump said, adding: “ I love the poorly educated .”

In making an appeal to Black voters, Trump offered a pretty dismal review of their conditions.

“Look, what do you have to lose?” he said in Michigan . “You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”

As CNN’s Kevin Liptak noted late in the 2020 campaign, Trump’s pitch to voters often included saying he wouldn’t have visited their locales if he didn’t have to. He often pointed to the freezing weather.

“Before the plague [Covid] came in, I had it made. I wasn’t coming to Erie,” Trump said in Pennsylvania. “I mean, I have to be honest: There’s no way I was coming.”

In another jokey comment, Trump told people assembled in stifling heat in Las Vegas that he needed them to live so they could deliver for him at the ballot box.

“Do you feel the breeze? ’Cause I don’t want anybody going on me,” Trump said. “We need every voter. I don’t care about you; I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

A joke, sure. The crowd laughed. But six rallygoers were hospitalized for heat-related illness.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on social media about the push to release more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”

Trump called these people “weaklings” who “do the Democrats work.”

(Left unsaid: The fact that many of those who had pushed this story before he returned to office were his own high-profile supporters. That included some who went on to serve in major roles, such as FBI Director Kash Patel.)

“When you stand up here, it’s just like the love ,” Trump said in Tennessee. “I could say the stupidest things, and you clap. ‘Oh, I love you so.’ It’s true.”

After some laughter, the president assured that isn’t what he actually does.

“But we don’t say the stupidest things,” he said. “We say things of common sense.”

Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

距离唐纳德·特朗普总统打趣说“我可以站在第五大道中间开枪杀人，也不会失去选民”已经过去了10多年。

如今他的支持者远不如以前那么忠诚了。但本周末，在他近期多次造访共和党传统票仓之一时，他仍然重申了这一主题。共和党人希望他能在这些地区动员支持者，为11月的中期选举做准备。

“当你们站在这里的时候，感觉就像在说爱，”特朗普在田纳西州的一次集会上说。“就算我说再蠢的话，你们也会鼓掌，说：‘哦，我太爱你们了。’”

这两条评论都以玩笑的形式出现，但也都指向了特朗普乐于迎合的一种看法：他的支持者几乎对他狂热崇拜——仿佛他们是没有思想的机器人。

通往2026年中期选举的道路现在就开始了。

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一些特朗普的前同事和顾问表示，这类言论暴露出特朗普对他的选民抱有某种蔑视。

多年来，他发表了大量评论，这些评论可以被理解为对共和党寄予厚望的中期选举基本盘选民的轻蔑态度。

在特朗普发表“第五大道”言论之前，他曾尝试过另一种说法。

据NBC新闻报道，他在2016年于新罕布什尔州表示：“一项民意调查显示，没有人会离开我。即使我是世界上最糟糕的人，他们也不会离开我。”

特朗普说，即使他做了“一些非常不恰当的事情，我的人也会留下来”。

“我拥有最忠诚的支持者——你们见过吗？”特朗普在爱荷华州苏城说道，并补充道：“就算我站在第五大道中间开枪杀人，我也不会失去选民。”

他补充道：“这简直太不可思议了。”

“即使是那些最不诚实的媒体也说特朗普的团队是最了不起的，”他在内华达州斯帕克斯市，也就是该州党团会议前夕说道。

“我的意思是，已经有68%的人无论如何都不会离开，”他补充道。“我认为这意味着谋杀。我认为这意味着任何事。”

在赢得党团会议后，特朗普指出他在受教育程度较低的选民中拥有更高的民调支持率，而这部分选民多年来一直是他的最忠实支持者之一。

但他却颇具挑衅意味地称他们为“受教育程度低的人”——而且是反复如此。

“我们赢得了年轻人的选票，也赢得了老年人的选票。我们赢得了受过高等教育的选票，也赢得了受教育程度低的选票，”特朗普说，并补充道：“我热爱那些受教育程度低的人。”

特朗普在争取黑人选民支持时，对他们的生活状况进行了相当糟糕的描述。

“听着，你们还有什么可失去的？”他在密歇根州说道。“你们生活在贫困之中，你们的学校一无是处，你们没有工作，你们的年轻人中有58%失业。你们到底还有什么可失去的？”

正如CNN记者凯文·利普塔克在2020年竞选后期指出的那样，特朗普在向选民拉票时经常说，如果不是迫不得已，他根本不会去他们所在的地区。他经常提到严寒的天气。

“在新冠疫情爆发之前，我的计划已经万事大吉了。我本来就没打算去伊利，”特朗普在宾夕法尼亚州说道。“说实话，我根本不可能去。”

特朗普在另一番玩笑式的言论中告诉聚集在拉斯维加斯闷热环境中的人们，他需要他们活着，这样他们才能在投票箱前为他效力。

“你感觉到风了吗？因为我不想任何人来烦我，”特朗普说。“我们需要每一位选民。我不在乎你，我只想要你的选票。我不在乎。”

这只是个玩笑，人群也笑了。但有六名集会参与者因中暑入院治疗。

“他们搞出的新骗局，我们永远都会称之为杰弗里·爱泼斯坦骗局，而我过去的那些支持者们却全盘接受了这套‘胡扯’，”特朗普在社交媒体上就要求公布更多与杰弗里·爱泼斯坦有关的文件一事写道。“他们没有吸取教训，而且可能永远也不会，即便他们已经被疯狂的左派骗了整整八年。”

特朗普称这些人是“懦夫”，他们“为民主党人做事”。

（未提及的事实是：在他重返政坛之前，许多推动此事的人都是他自己的知名支持者。其中包括一些后来担任要职的人，例如联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔。）

“当你们站在这里的时候，感觉就像在表达爱意，”特朗普在田纳西州说。“就算我说一些最愚蠢的话，你们也会鼓掌，说‘哦，我太爱你们了’。这是真的。”

一阵笑声过后，总统保证说他实际上并不是那样做的。

“但我们不会说蠢话，”他说。“我们说的都是常识性的话。”