The funny thing about being famous is there will always be people who hate you. Fame is like that, and that’s the world Donald Trump comes out of.
So when he hears that people hate him, in a way, it’s like a normal part of the job. Politicians don’t want to inspire indifference, but hatred is worse. While Trump is very much loved by his die-hard supporters, he is also hated by many more people, and not just Democrats and never-Trump Republicans.
Average Americans, moderate and many conservative voters simply cannot stand the guy. He needs to come to terms with that and find a way to reach these people, or else 2024 will be a repeat of 2020.
A vote cast out of love counts just as much as one cast out of hatred, no matter how intense. The Trump campaign seems to think passion equals more support than it does, which is the sure path to an electoral loss. Just ask Mitt Romney, who drew very large crowds and suffered a very large loss.
That doesn’t mean all is lost for Trump, not by a longshot. As Van Jones put it on CNN Monday, after almost a month of unequaled positive — glowing even — media coverage, Vice President Kamala Harris is only tied in the polls with him. All the water-carrying and propping up that the entire left-wing media-industrial complex can muster hasn't bought her a clear lead. That’s not a good sign for Democrats.
Even so, Republicans need to acknowledge the news that is not good for them. The new CBS New/YouGov poll has Harris up 51-48 over Trump. That’s not surprising, considering the slobbering media coverage she’s received. Nor is it particularly worrisome at this point in the election cycle. What should be of concern for the Trump campaign is the numbers when it comes to the issues voters care about.
On liberal issues, unsurprisingly, polling favors Harris. If a voter cares about “race and diversity,” they are overwhelmingly in favor of Harris, 78 to 21 percent. If abortion is what you care about, Harris leads there 69 to 30. And the “state of democracy” favors Harris 57 to 42. But those issues are not the top issues for most voters. Most of them care about the economy, inflation and immigration a lot more than the things that are burning up college faculty lounges and inspiring Manhattan protest marches.
On the issues topping voters' concerns, Trump is leading, by quite a bit. For people whose top priority is the economy, Trump leads 56 to 43. Voters concerned about inflation favor the former president by 23 points, 61 to 38. And on immigration, Trump crushes the former “Border Czar” 76 to 24, a 52-point advantage.
Yet somehow, Harris leads by three points. How is that? The answer is pretty simple: A lot of people really, really don’t like Donald Trump.
I’m not talking about MSNBC viewers who have been conditioned to have a vitriolic, Pavlovian response to Trump’s existence. I’m talking about the average person who realistically might still vote for him, but who would prefer he just talk more about how he’s going to fix the issues facing Americans, or even just shut the hell up for a minute and stop with the bombastic tirades and insults.
Before my father passed away last year, he told me he wished Trump would just stop talking sometimes. He loved Trump, but he could only take so much of him. When Trump started talking about what he wanted to accomplish, my dad was always interested. But when Trump was complaining about a stolen 2020 election, or anything else, really, he would quickly lose interest.
No one elects a president so he can settle scores or even address a wrongs of the past, they elect a president because of what he or she will do in office. Trump needs to understand this and campaign accordingly.
That doesn’t mean Trump can’t still be Trump. He can still take the personal swipes and make the jokes that make him who he is. But that can’t be the focus. It’s tempting to think everyone loves you when everyone around you loves you, especially when they’re financially dependent on you. But your personal world, no matter how large, is not anywhere close to a majority of the country.
To win this fall, Trump needs the votes of a lot of people who do not like him, maybe even hate him. To appeal to these voters, he needs more “Here’s what I’m going to do to make your life better,” and less “Kamala is stupid with a grating laugh.” The first step in doing that, in winning, is admitting that, while it’s great that so many people love him, he also needs to appeal to people who do not.
A person’s heart may be filled by how many people truly love them, but elections are won only by people who get more votes than their opponents.
Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).
