On Politics: Republicans get pumped for Trump’s muscular finale
Republicans get pumped for Trump's muscular finale
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The Man ShowThe night Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, he was introduced by party stalwarts like Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush. In 2004, George W. Bush went with Gov. George Pataki of New York. Tonight, former President Donald Trump will be preceded by Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is less a display of political lineage than an unapologetic show of masculine kitsch. Five days after Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt, and following calls for unity at the start of the convention, he will take the stage tonight in an evening that seems designed to celebrate literal combat and general brawn. The lineup suggests a swing back to the bellicose political style that defined Trump's rise. And as calls for men to embrace more traditional ideals of manliness have percolated in conservative circles in the wake of the #MeToo movement, it is an explicit embrace of masculinity as Republicans move to burnish Trump's own image of physical strength. Here in Milwaukee, a 78-year-old man who has never exactly been a poster child for exercise or healthy eating has been held up as a paragon of physical vigor. His supporters have treated him like the "American Bad Ass" in the song that Robert James Ritchie, the artist better known as Kid Rock, is set to perform in the moments before Trump takes the stage. They have displayed on enormous screens the defiant image of him pumping his fist after the shooting, turning it into an instant symbol of his willingness to fight. They have pumped their own fists and bandaged their own ears. They have even tried out new catchphrases to show off his resilience. "America," Donald Trump Jr. said from the stage on Wednesday night, "is Trump tough." A study in contrastIt's a display with an obvious political advantage: contrasting Trump with President Biden, who is only about three years older than Trump but whose health and fitness have been the subject of intense doubt and scrutiny by voters in both parties, especially after he struggled on a debate stage last month. Biden's stiff gait and his occasional trips and slips were a punchline here even before he announced on Wednesday that he was sick with Covid-19 and planning to isolate. Some delegates have been carrying signs around that neatly sum up that line of attack: "Trump = strong. Biden = weak." But it also highlights an idea of masculinity — one that some people just might refer to as toxic — that has been an undercurrent at this convention and, indeed, throughout a presidential campaign that has at times seemed to be a masculinity contest. "The entire campaign was about projecting strength," said Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M who studies propaganda and political communication. She pointed out that authoritarian leaders like Benito Mussolini have also taken care to depict themselves as physically strong. It crops up in the merchandise worn by some of Trump's devoted followers, which sometimes shows his face on Rambo's body, depicting a cartoonish, superhero-esque version of the former president. And it's popped up off the main convention stage, too, like when Representative Byron Donalds of Florida was introducing Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia at a luncheon hosted by the National Federation of Republican Women. "Anybody remember that show, 'American Gladiators'?" Donalds asked the mostly female crowd. "This dude was one of the guys competing against the gladiators!" It's not a convention-only phenomenon. Remember last year, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was posting shirtless videos of himself doing push-ups and Vivek Ramaswamy was bragging about his burpee workouts? Or when one of Gov. Ron DeSantis's campaign accounts reposted a video, widely seen as homophobic, that was replete with images of shirtless, muscular men? A fan of male combatTrump himself has made no secret of his admiration for spaces that feature male combat. After he was convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment made to a porn star, he visited an Ultimate Fighting Championship match with Dana White, the organization's chief executive, who is scheduled to speak shortly before Trump tonight. And Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and close Trump ally who is also slated to speak tonight, has complained at length about a supposed crisis of masculinity. The embrace of masculinity as political ideal has come as the Republican Party has faced accusations of sexism and misogyny. Trump was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women's private parts and found liable for sexually abusing a woman in a dressing room in the 1990s. Ever since three Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump joined the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Republicans have suffered as Democrats have campaigned against their party's longtime opposition to abortion rights. Trump has shown considerable strength among male voters. In a national New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters earlier this summer, Trump drew the support of 58 percent of male voters, while just 31 percent of them supported Biden. Biden's lead among women was much smaller; he drew the support of 49 percent of women, in contrast to 42 percent for Trump. Judy Motlow, 68, an attendee at the National Federation of Republican Women luncheon, said she thought Trump's response to the shooting might burnish his standing with women. "When he came up after he got shot, with his fist up and was very defiant — I think that's what a lot of women would like to see their husbands do," Motlow said. "I've always been for Trump, but I'm thinking: Who could not want that man fighting for them like that?"
Convention-goers on talk of Biden stepping aside: That's undemocraticThe Republican convention has found fault with a lot of Biden's decisions, but there is one thing attendees agree with President Biden on: the desire for him to remain as the Democratic nominee. My colleague Nick Corasaniti noticed that their reasoning sounds a lot like the attacks that Democrats usually lob their way. I asked him to tell us more. As the Democrats convulse over worries about the top of their ticket, the Trump campaign is seizing on the dysfunction and trying to flip Democrats' warnings about the state of democracy against them. Chris LaCivita, a top Trump adviser, described the pressure from Democrats on President Biden to step aside as antithetical to the Democratic Party's framing of the 2024 election as a battle over democracy. "They all want to talk about this notion of the war against democracy" but they're the ones fomenting "a coup," LaCivita said at an event just outside the convention hall. He added that if they push Biden aside, Democrats will be "disenfranchising" the 14 million people who voted in the primaries. It is a line of criticism that seeks to both undercut a core Democratic framing of the election that democracy is at stake, while also increasing pressure to lock in a general election matchup that looks increasingly favorable to Trump, with poll after poll showing support for Biden evaporating as calls for him to step aside continue. LaCivita dodged a question over whether the Trump campaign would explore any legal avenues to keep Biden on the ballot, though before any nomination vote by the Democratic National Committee, there are very few, if any, legal options to force Mr. Biden onto a ballot in any state. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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