The sequence went around the world and could have led to repentance from the candidate. Not for Donald Trump, who staunchly supported, during the debate between him on September 10 against his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, that Haitian migrants were eating pets in the small town of Springfield, Ohio. The Republican candidate for the White House made the baseless allegation live on national television. Immediately, it was taken up by the journalists who moderated the debate, who explained that this statement was false. The Springfield police had already denied this rumor.
But the damage is done: Americans come to patrol the city, the children of migrants are forced to be escorted to school. Even the denials of a Sprinfield town hall official to the team of JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, are not heard in the candidate’s camp.
21 false or misleading statements on average per day during his presidency
Donald Trump repeats fake news all the time at meetings. He should also launch it this Sunday evening from Madison Square Garden in New York. This is no surprise: since 2016, he has been fueled by fake newsan expression that he also helped to popularize. During his four years in the White House, Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims, according to calculations by the Washington Postor 21 on average per day.
During this 2024 campaign, Donald Trump kept the same strategy: repeat excesses, exaggerations and complete lies over and over again. His favorite target? The Democrats and his rival, Kamala Harris. Despite the fact-checking articles and the corrections of his rivals, Donald Trump does not vary one iota, even when he attacks the federal agency responsible for helping the victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton, at the risk of seeing people move away from this help.
“A majority of the Republican electorate believes it anyway”
Why does Donald Trump persist? “This strategy works with its base electorate, which is the electorate that must be mobilized, responds to 20 Minutes Grégory Benedetti, lecturer in American civilization at the University of Grenoble-Alpes. This electorate does not hold it against him. »
Lauric Henneton, lecturer in American civilization at the University of Versailles Saint Quentin, also sees “Donald Trump’s inability to question himself”. When he was interviewed on October 16 by ordinary citizens on the Univision channel, Donald Trump “responded completely off the mark. » Regardless of the rhetoric used by the ex-president, “a majority of the Republican electorate believes him anyway” and has almost fallen into “idolatry”.
For proof? When Donald Trump “is corrected live, these corrections no longer matter” for this electorate, adds Alexis Pichard, researcher in American politics and media at the University of Nanterre. “They no longer believe in restoring the facts because they no longer believe in those who are responsible for doing so: journalists, scientists, politicians…”
A form of “immunity”
Donald Trump is also playing opportunism by engulfing himself in a skepticism that has ancient roots. “Since the 1960s at least, there has been an increasingly established mistrust of institutions,” notes Lauric Henneton. The Vietnam War and Watergate didn’t help. » Donald Trump frankly activates this card of skepticism, even conspiracy, when he repeatedly repeats that if he loses, it will be because of a “theft” of the election by the Democrats. A repetition of what he had already pushed in 2020, refusing to recognize his defeat and speaking of massive fraud. The hypothesis has been repeatedly refuted, including by judges appointed by Donald Trump.
Despite this, part of the Trumpist electorate is still convinced that the 2020 election was rigged. For Lauric Henneton, the persistence of these beliefs “goes beyond rationality: all this gives Donald Trump a form of immunity, which is very specific to him. » No other member of the Republican Party benefits from such an aura, which allows the candidate to “cross a certain number of red lines”. His legal cases are thus perceived as “political” trials, and the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 seen as a patriotic surge.
“Yes, but…”
In the United States, the outcome of the election is decided in the famous pivotal states, the “swing states”, which switch from one election to another into the Democratic or Republican camps. With such excesses, doesn’t Donald Trump risk frightening these very important voters? “The question is that of dosage,” replies Lauric Henneton. Yes, there are people who will start to say to themselves that this is starting to cause a lot of misinformation, a lot of tweets, but… but I’m going to vote for him because he’s a good business leader, because he is charismatic…”
The specialist adds that these independent voters “are the most misinformed. This means that, for example, when we talk to them about the indictment of Donald Trump, they can say that it is a move by the Democrats who are trying to get him, there is an attitude of skepticism. »
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