Anyone who understands Donald Trump and his brand of politics could read through the code when the White House announced that the president was coming to North Carolina to talk about “crime.”
According to the latest New York Times/Sienna Poll, crime was the 16th most important issue to voters, with just one percent listing it as their deciding issue in the upcoming midterm election.
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If Trump really came to North Carolina to talk only about crime, the speech was a waste of time.
The president did repeat his talking points about crime. Almost all of them were false and designed to praise himself, but then Trump got to what seemed to be the real point of his speech.
Trump went to North Carolina to talk to his white supporters about a certain kind of crime, and given that this is Donald Trump, who is about as subtle as slamming your finger with a hammer, he made it impossible to ignore what he was really trying to say.
Most people talk about Willie Horton-style campaign politics to describe the infamously racist ad that the George H.W. Bush campaign used against Michael Dukakis in 1988.
Trump unveiled his version of the Willie Horton ad targeting Democratic Senate candidate and former Gov. Roy Cooper, and then talked about Willie Horton.