To save the midterms, Trump is recharging the grievance politics that made him president

Eric Lee/Getty Images

Donald Trump is playing one of his final cards in the midterm election race: fear of an American civilizational collapse.

To hear the president, the greatest current threat to Americans is not the prohibitive cost of groceries, gasoline, diesel and housing; his Iran war quagmire; or concerns that AI could wipe out jobs and even humanity .

It’s that White, Christian culture could be destroyed unless his Republican monopoly on Washington power is preserved in the midterm elections.

In one of the most foreboding closing arguments of any of his political campaigns, Trump is flinging racially charged rhetoric; conjuring Islamophobic paranoia ; and stirring up false visions of kids being mutilated in mass transgender surgeries without parental consent. He’s also acting as an arbiter of others’ faith and American identify.

“Americans are going to stand up and declare that we will protect our civilization, we will preserve our religion, our values and our heritage, and we will never let our nation be conquered or destroyed by people that hate us,” Trump said at a rally in Kansas on Monday, at which he also used an antisemitic slur .

At his most vulnerable political moment in nearly six years as president, Trump isn’t responding with compelling, innovative defenses of his record on affordability or foreign policy. He’s intensifying the scorched-earth imagery that made his name and seeking to replenish power by weaponizing painful national divides.

In an example of his willingness to wade into some of the most sensitive cultural issues, Trump warned at his Kansas event that Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton told people to “repent because you were born White.” This was a misrepresentation of the candidate’s far more expansive remarks on race, self-reflection and personal faith.

But getting the details right is hardly the point.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Trump has also been claiming that US-born Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is a “jihadist,” a smear he repeated Tuesday night in North Carolina. And he has been referring to El-Sayed as “Mohammed” on the basis that if “you have any problem with names, just call the guy Mohammed. You’ll probably be right.”

Such stereotyping is not merely aimed at disqualifying a political foe. It implies that everyone who shares that person’s faith or ethnic characteristics lacks the distinguishing humanity of an individual and is not authentically American.

The president offered another glimpse into his mindset in Kansas when he used “Shylock” — an antisemitic slur — to defend GOP Sen. Roger Marshall against criticism over medical billing practices. This time, he can’t say he was unaware of the term’s insinuations: He caused a storm by using it publicly in 2025.

As midterms loom, Democrats learn to speak a new language: American

The president is going beyond generalizing over religion and race.

He warned in Arizona this month that a Democratic Congress would lead to widespread gender transitions of children in schools. “They want to mutilate, cut your children. It’s unbelievable, what they do. … Your son leaves as Jimmy and comes back home in three days as Janet, and they don’t even ask you,” he said. He told similar baseless tales in Georgia last week and in North Carolina on Tuesday evening.

In recent days, he’s stoked fears that the rioting rocking France will cross the Atlantic if the Democrats win, after a campaign in which he’s warned socialists and communists want to obliterate the republic. He again demonized Somali-born Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday, dismissing the idea that the naturalized American citizen is entitled to constitutional rights because she is originally from a “shithouse” country.

The president has also sought to foster religious intolerance by implying that the faithful who do not share his sympathizers’ specific political creed are a national threat. On Monday, he mocked Hamilton’s religious credentials as a leader in the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. “He doesn’t act like a pastor because his views aren’t of a pastor,” Trump said.

While admitting he’s hardly a Bible aficionado, Trump nevertheless portrayed himself as a pseudo-prophet, claiming that an unnamed Texas religious leader had been correct to predict that “he’s going to lead us to a period of time … in Christianity that nobody else can do.”

CNN explores the growing influence of Christian nationalism in American society

Trump has long sought to identify enemies and outsiders against whom to define himself. He’s most politically effective when he has a foil. And many politicians are guilty of exaggeration. Some, like Trump, sometimes dole out vindictive comments framed as jokes to create a layer of political cover. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, tapped into the theme of un-American outsiders, quipping Monday that a protester at one of his events must have crossed the border illegally to behave in such a manner.

Many liberals have meanwhile tended to assume that all Trump’s supporters share the apparent racial and religious prejudices of their movement’s leader. That’s not a fair criticism of voters who find the totality of his message appealing.

It is not necessarily racist to worry that Democrats didn’t properly secure the southern border. Some Americans genuinely worry whether expanding Muslim or other faith communities will fully integrate or change the character of their cities and customs. And it’s perfectly appropriate for issues like a candidate’s views on the Middle East or groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to be litigated in campaign debates. El-Sayed has hardly been unwilling to address them.

Yet Trump is going much further than simply throwing out “red meat” to supporters, in the phraseology of political consultants. It’s not credible that such a sophisticated political operator is mindlessly blurting out random thoughts during his onstage weave. The repetition of searing themes and the frequent resort to racial or religious tropes is creating a pattern of fear.

Trump’s return to some of his most inflammatory imagery coincides with a swing through red states in a last-ditch bid to jolt turnout among the most conservative voters as he tries to save vulnerable Republican candidates. His decade in top-flight politics has shown his dark rhetoric can be a rallying cry.

But even for Trump, in a political career that has always flouted decorum, the latest demagoguery is stark. It comes across as a deliberate attempt at distraction; an effort to reframe the stakes of an election dominated by concerns about affordability — and voter economic plights worsened by his war in Iran .

It’s unclear whether it will work. If he can animate low-intensity voters who have shown up only when he’s on the ballot, maybe he’ll save some red-state Republicans who never expected they’d face a fight for their careers in 2026.

But White House strategists show they understand how his outlandish comments can alienate more moderate voters by not sending him this week to swing states with the tightest races.

And Mark Sanford, the Republican former governor of South Carolina, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday that concentrating on false stories about transgender kids was unlikely to mitigate GOP vulnerabilities.

“I think it’s off-topic because the preponderance of folks that I talked to in and around South Carolina are worried about the economy, they’re worried about affordability. They’re worried about inflation,” Sanford said. “I guess it’s a way of changing the subject if what’s going on isn’t working for you … but I don’t see this as the issue that’s going to move swing voters.”

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The cacophony of Trump’s two terms has sometimes dimmed shock over his antics or simply exhausted his critics as he floods the zone with acrimony. American politics, of course, has long been scarred by racism. Bigotry has periodically rushed to the surface of political life, often when cultivated by a politician who sees it as a vehicle to amass more power.

Yet it’s still remarkable to witness a president, a head of state, so consciously using his megaphone to tear at national racial, religious and cultural divides. When past presidents like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush — or even Lyndon Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act — wanted to play a race card for political reasons, they did it implicitly or metaphorically.

Trump doesn’t do such subtlety. By lashing out at undocumented migrants, minority lawmakers and transgender citizens, he seems to be deliberately trying to delineate who belongs in America and benefits from its rights — a path that is both threatening to individual citizens and national unity.

But for all its ferocity, the message this time around hints at vulnerability.

In Trump’s presidential campaigns, his search for outside foes on whom to blame America’s woes was often a galvanizing force for his movement. Now, with his popularity near record lows, the strongman’s conceit of a nation besieged by outsiders suggests a diminished leader making a last stand — rather than one with the capacity to expand his appeal through persuasion.

And with polls showing majorities of Americans sour on Trump’s performance, economic management and signature foreign war, his attempt at inflammatory distraction seems unlikely to prevail. No wonder the GOP views November 3 with growing trepidation.

Eric Lee/Getty Images

唐纳德·特朗普正在中期选举中打出他的最后一张牌：对美国文明崩溃的恐惧。

听总统的说法，目前美国人面临的最大威胁不是高昂的食品杂货、汽油、柴油和住房成本；也不是伊朗战争的泥潭；更不是人工智能可能摧毁工作岗位甚至人类的担忧。

除非共和党在中期选举中保住对华盛顿权力的垄断地位，否则白人基督教文化可能会被摧毁。

在特朗普历次竞选活动中，他发表了最令人担忧的最后陈词之一。他抛出种族歧视言论，煽动伊斯兰恐惧症，并散布关于儿童在未经父母同意的情况下被大规模进行变性手术的虚假画面。他还扮演着评判他人信仰和美国身份的仲裁者角色。

“美国人将站起来宣布，我们将保护我们的文明，我们将维护我们的宗教、价值观和传统，我们绝不会让我们的国家被仇恨我们的人征服或摧毁，”特朗普周一在堪萨斯州的一次集会上说道，他还使用了反犹太主义的侮辱性言论。

在执政近六年来最脆弱的政治时刻，特朗普并没有就其在经济承受能力或外交政策方面的政绩提出令人信服的创新辩护，反而加剧了令他声名鹊起的焦土政策，并试图利用国内的严重分裂来巩固权力。

特朗普在堪萨斯州的一次活动中警告说，民主党参议员候选人亚当·汉密尔顿曾告诉人们“要忏悔，因为你生为白人”，这体现了他愿意涉足一些最敏感的文化议题的意愿。这完全歪曲了汉密尔顿关于种族、自我反思和个人信仰等更为广泛的言论。

但细节的准确性并非重点。

乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社

特朗普还声称，出生于美国的密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德是“圣战分子”，周二晚在北卡罗来纳州，他再次重复了这一诽谤。他还称埃尔-赛义德为“穆罕默德”，理由是“如果你对名字有任何异议，那就叫他穆罕默德。你很可能就猜对了。”

这种刻板印象并非仅仅旨在否定政治对手。它暗示着，所有与某人拥有相同信仰或种族特征的人都缺乏个体的人性，并非真正的美国人。

总统在堪萨斯州的一次讲话中，再次暴露了他的思维方式。当时，他用“夏洛克”（Shylock）——一个反犹太主义的侮辱性词汇——来为共和党参议员罗杰·马歇尔辩护，后者因医疗收费问题而受到批评。这一次，他不能再说自己不知道这个词的含义了：他在2025年公开使用这个词，引发了轩然大波。

随着中期选举临近，民主党人开始学习一种新的语言：美式英语。

总统在宗教和种族问题上已经超越了泛泛而谈的范畴。

他本月在亚利桑那州警告说，民主党控制的国会将导致学校里儿童性别转换手术的大规模发生。“他们想残害、切割你的孩子。他们的所作所为简直令人难以置信……你的儿子以吉米的身份离开学校，三天后就以珍妮特的身份回家，他们甚至都不问你一声，”他说。上周他在佐治亚州，以及周二晚上在北卡罗来纳州，也发表了类似的毫无根据的言论。

近日，他煽动民众担忧，如果民主党获胜，席卷法国的骚乱将会蔓延到大西洋彼岸。此前，他在竞选期间曾警告说，社会主义者和共产主义者企图摧毁美国共和国。周二，他再次妖魔化了出生于索马里的明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔，驳斥了这位已入籍美国公民因其出身于“粪坑国家”而享有宪法权利的说法。

总统还试图煽动宗教不容忍，暗示那些不认同其支持者特定政治信条的信徒对国家构成威胁。周一，他嘲讽汉密尔顿作为复活联合卫理公会教堂领袖的宗教资格。“他不像个牧师，因为他的观点不像个牧师，”特朗普说道。

尽管特朗普承认自己并非圣经爱好者，但他仍然把自己描绘成一个伪先知，声称一位不愿透露姓名的德克萨斯州宗教领袖的预言是正确的，即“他将带领我们进入一个……基督教的时代，这是其他人无法做到的”。

CNN探讨了基督教民族主义在美国社会日益增长的影响力

特朗普长期以来一直试图寻找敌人和局外人，以此来定义自己。当他找到一个反面角色时，他的政治影响力最大。许多政客都犯过夸大其词的毛病。有些人，比如特朗普，有时会以玩笑的名义发表带有恶意攻击性的言论，以此来掩盖自己的政治意图。例如，副总统JD·万斯就利用了“非美国局外人”这个话题，他在周一打趣说，在他举办的一场活动中，一名抗议者一定是非法越境才做出这种举动的。

与此同时，许多自由派人士倾向于认为，所有特朗普的支持者都和这位运动领袖一样，持有明显的种族和宗教偏见。但这种批评对于那些认同特朗普全部理念的选民来说并不公平。

担心民主党人没有妥善保障南部边境安全，这未必是种族主义行为。一些美国人确实担心，穆斯林或其他宗教群体的扩张是否能够完全融入当地社会，或者改变他们所在城市的风貌和习俗。在竞选辩论中，候选人对中东问题的看法，以及对穆斯林兄弟会等组织的看法，都是完全合理的。埃尔-赛义德也并非不愿谈及这些问题。

然而，特朗普的做法远不止是像政治顾问所说的那样，抛出一些“煽动性言论”来讨好支持者。很难相信这样一位老练的政治家会在台上漫无目的地胡言乱语。反复强调尖锐的主题，以及频繁诉诸种族或宗教的陈词滥调，正在制造一种恐惧的氛围。

特朗普重拾一些最具煽动性的言论，正值他前往几个传统共和党州进行最后冲刺之际，试图以此刺激保守派选民的投票率，挽救那些处境岌岌可危的共和党候选人。他十年来在政坛的历练表明，他那些阴暗的言辞可以成为鼓舞人心的号召。

但即便对于向来蔑视政治礼仪的特朗普而言，他最新的煽动性言论也显得格外刺眼。这看起来像是蓄意转移视线，试图重新定义这场选举的利害关系——这场选举的核心问题是民众对生活成本的担忧，以及选民因伊朗战争而加剧的经济困境。

目前还不清楚这是否有效。如果他能激发那些只有在他的名字出现在选票上时才会投票的低度选民的热情，或许他能挽救一些来自保守州的共和党人，这些人从未想过自己会在2026年面临一场关乎政治生涯的战斗。

但白宫策略师们表示，他们明白他那些古怪的言论会如何疏远更多温和派选民，因此本周没有派他前往选情最胶着的摇摆州。

南卡罗来纳州共和党前州长马克·桑福德周二告诉 CNN 的艾琳·伯内特，集中精力报道有关跨性别儿童的虚假故事不太可能减轻共和党的弱点。

“我认为这有点跑题，因为我在南卡罗来纳州及其周边地区采访的大多数人都担心经济，担心生活成本，担心通货膨胀，”桑福德说。“我想，如果现状对你不利，这或许是一种转移话题的方式……但我认为这并非能够左右摇摆选民的关键问题。”

凯文·拉马克/路透社

特朗普两届任期内的种种喧嚣，有时令人对他的种种怪诞行径感到震惊，有时则令批评者精疲力竭，因为他不断散播尖刻的言论。当然，美国政治长期以来都饱受种族主义的困扰。偏见时不时地会涌现到政治生活中，而这往往是某些政客为了攫取更多权力而刻意煽动的结果。

然而，亲眼目睹一位总统、一位国家元首如此自觉地利用其影响力来撕裂国家种族、宗教和文化裂痕，仍然令人震惊。以往的总统，例如理查德·尼克松、罗纳德·里根或乔治·H·W·布什——甚至包括通过《民权法案》的林登·约翰逊——如果出于政治目的想要打种族牌，他们通常都是含蓄地或以隐喻的方式进行。

特朗普的手段就没那么委婉。他猛烈抨击非法移民、少数族裔议员和跨性别公民，似乎是在刻意划分谁属于美国，谁能享有美国的权利——这种做法既威胁到公民个人，也威胁到国家团结。

尽管这次的信息充满凶猛，但其中也暗示着脆弱的一面。

在特朗普的总统竞选中，他不断寻找外部敌人，将美国的困境归咎于他们，这往往是他竞选活动的一大动力。如今，他的支持率接近历史低点，这位强人所宣称的国家正遭受外敌围攻，这与其说是一位有能力通过说服来扩大影响力的领导人，不如说是一位日渐衰落的领导人在做最后的挣扎。

民调显示，大多数美国民众对特朗普的执政表现、经济管理和标志性的对外战争感到不满，因此他试图通过煽动性言论转移公众注意力的做法似乎不太可能奏效。难怪共和党对11月3日的选举越来越感到忧心忡忡。