'They're laughing at him': Democrats swap fear for mockery in new Trump strategy
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The Democrats have previously warned about the dangers of Donald Trump when talking about the former president. But now they appear to be mocking and poking fun of him in a shift of the tone.
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In brief...
- Democrats have shifted their rhetoric on Donald Trump at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, moving from emphasising the dangers of his presidency to mocking him.
- Key figures like Barack and Michelle Obama have adopted a lighter touch in their speeches, with Barack Obama poking fun at Trump's obsession with 'crowd sizes'.
- This represents a departure from Michelle Obama's "When they go low, we go high" motto in previous campaigns.
What’s the story?
There’s been one thing in particular that has stood out at this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) - a noticeable shift in the way Democrats are talking about Donald Trump.
For years, Democrats have focussed their messaging on the danger that a Trump presidency poses, but the message has never quite landed.
“Fundamentally they never really had the response to Trump,” Emily Maitlis notes on the latest episode of The News Agents USA.
This time round as the two parties go head-to-head, the Democrats have shifted their rhetoric, leaning into mocking the former president.
“Four years ago, it was all about the darkness of Donald Trump and the kind of terrible, sort of dystopian future for America if Donald Trump became the president,” says Jon Sopel as he watches the shift unfold in Chicago.
“I thought [this week] they were poking fun at him. There was an element of almost deriding him, laughing at him.”
The News Agents on Barack Obama's DNC speech
How are Democrats mocking Trump?
The change in tone towards Trump isn’t slight or unique, it’s run through almost every speaker’s words at the DNC.
Most notable was the change in tone of Barack and Michelle Obama’s speeches.
In previous democratic election campaigns against Donald Trump, the Obama’s focussed their messaging on how dangerous Trump would be for America. As Lewis says, they wanted to get out there “the threat [Trump] posed to the public and how corrosive he was”.
“And of course, they still hint on these themes, and they still talk about that, but they are doing so generally, I think, with a lighter touch, they are leaning into the idea of mocking him as much as fearing him.”
A memorable moment from Barack Obama’s speech saw the former president make fun of Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes - his hand movements in the clip hinting that he may actually be referring to something else entirely.
Obama: Here is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes pic.twitter.com/WGwNOFinHK
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2024
“He might not be talking about crowd sizes, that's the point, right?” Emily points out. “Obama would not have done that eight years ago”.
Obama did it “with the knowledge that he could make him look small just by talking about his obsession,” Emily adds.
When they go low, we go high
When they go low, we go high. That’s the famous line Michelle Obama repeated whilst campaigning for Hillary Clinton in her run against Trump back in 2016.
But even Michelle Obama herself abandoned that motto at the 2024 convention.
“It's all very well being gracious. But actually, it didn't really work for the Democrats” says Emily.
This time round, Michelle poked fun at Trump, who came under fire a few weeks ago for saying at a convention for Black journalists that immigrants were crossing the border to take “Black jobs”.
She responded in her DNC speech: "Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those 'Black jobs?’” to the roaring crowd.
BEST MOMENT OF NIGHT AT DNC:
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 21, 2024
Michelle Obama to Trump: “Who is going to tell him that the job that he is currently seeking might just me one of those ‘black jobs’?” pic.twitter.com/z0ycTD8pJG
“Michelle Obama wanted to go after him”, Jon says.
“Her dig at Trump was pointed and it had a lightness of touch, but it had a moral outrage to it too”.
Perhaps the Obama’s and Harris herself have VP-pick Tim Walz to thank for the new master plan, whose simple but effective strategy of calling Trump and Vance one word: ‘weird,’ really cut through.
After all, the part of Walz’s previous campaign speech where he exclaims: “Are they a threat to democracy? Yes. Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people’s lives in danger? Yes. Are they going to endanger the planet by not dealing with climate change? Yes, they’re going to do all that,” may be valid, but didn’t go viral.
“These guys are just weird,” did.
Listen in full on The News Agents USA.
