Macho Maga? Trump locks in America’s hyper-masculine vote

PENNSYLVANIA – He lauds strongmen autocrats, hangs out with martial arts stars, and has no greater compliment than calling someone a “fighter”.

Donald Trump is going all out for the macho vote in November’s election – and it is working.

The real estate tycoon and former president has long crafted an often cartoonish, hyper-masculine image – most controversially including bragging about sexual assault. Now, in an election where Ms Kamala Harris is vying to become America’s first woman president, Trump’s macho powers are being put to the ultimate test.

Ms Harris is seeing a surge in female support and has made the question of abortion rights a top campaign issue. Trump, meanwhile, is unapologetically drilling down into the part of the electorate that loves cryptocurrency and the ultra-violent Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and thinks society has become too feminine and “woke”.

“He speaks to our generation,” said Mr Nick Passano, standing with four tattooed fellow millennial cryptocurrency investors who dub themselves Maga Boyz, at Trump’s Make America Great Again, or Maga, rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Aug 30.

“We have to set the tone in regards to what we want our children to emulate, which is strong masculine men. And he very much represents that,” said Mr Passano, 37, one of several men who spoke to AFP about the “manosphere” aligning with Trump.

They wore shirts with crass imagery – Trump giving the middle finger – and said he should not put up with any more “bullsh**”.

It might seem a stretch for a billionaire, golf-playing 78-year-old to pose as a bad boy, but Trump knows more than perhaps any other US politician about marketing.

His response to being convicted on 34 felony charges in New York in May was to attend a UFC bout a few days later, winning thunderous applause from the crowd of 16,000.

And at July’s Republican convention, just days after Trump survived an assassination attempt, professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off and hailed Trump as a “gladiator”.

Voters, it seems, are watching. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds Trump up against Ms Harris by five points among men – and her leading among women by 13.

Alpha male

When President Joe Biden was still seeking re-election, Trump’s strategy was unambiguous. Although only slightly younger than the President, he hammered his opponent as weak and senile – and revelled in the battering he delivered during their June debate.

The entry of 59-year-old Ms Harris means Trump is facing someone far younger. He also has to contend with the risk that his brash – critics would say bullying – style will backfire against a female and black opponent.

But University of Pittsburgh communications professor Paul Johnson said Trump will not – and likely cannot – switch tone.

Trump is pushing the “Trumpian world view”, Prof Johnson told AFP – a world that is “nasty” and where “‘real Americans’ need to be ready to fight for it, to say uncomfortable and racist truths about the world, and if necessary to use violence”.

This is reflected in Trump’s frequent reposting of crude, sexualised attacks on Ms Harris and his attempt to play the race card by questioning whether she is really black.

For young voters at the Johnstown rally, however, that is just Trump being unafraid. “Him being himself I feel is the reason I like him so much,” said 21-year-old restaurant worker Wyatt Waszo.

Fighting ‘male malaise’

The macho movement goes far deeper than just Trump.

His claims about Democrats jettisoning masculinity and killing off male-dominated blue-collar professions like manufacturing and mining strike a chord in electorally strategic Rust Belt communities.

And it is a message echoed on countless right-wing radio shows and influential podcasts about the so-called “male malaise”.

It is a backlash against globalism and the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, said Ms Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University. “Trump’s game is playing into fears of losing what you have,” she added.

Polling by non-partisan researchers PerryUndem in 2023 showed 82 per cent of Republican men say society today punishes men “just for acting like men”.

Ms Harris has so far notably avoided anchoring her campaign around the historic goal of a first female presidency. And Democrats hope her earthy running mate Tim Walz will help balance the ticket in the gender wars.

The 60-year-old Minnesota governor may be a liberal, but it is the other half of his resume that the party thinks helps him most – military veteran, former school football coach, hunter and ice-fisherman. AFP