Donald Trump Says That the MAGA Crowd Loves Black People, Except When They Don't

Donald Trump, White House photo

President Donald Trump can win votes by dividing Americans, but can he govern the country that way? I don’t see how.

My former professor, Charles Urban Larson, a noted authority on persuasive communication, explains that persuaders can use a unifying style or a pragmatic style. The unifying style tries to unite us, while the pragmatic (or polarizing) style polarizes the audience.

In an extemporaneous briefing before the Marine One helicopter departure for Cape Kennedy yesterday, Trump said, "MAGA loves black people." He spoke in a warm, welcoming, inclusive style, making loving, generous comments that aggravated the nation’s divisions. That is, his style was unifying, but his content was harsh, divisive, and racial. Kind and hateful. Uniting and divisive. Generous words placing a thin cover over hostile thoughts.

Let’s look at how it happened, why it worked rhetorically, and  how Trump twisted rhetorical kindness to his own dubious purposes. In an act of what was either supreme tone-deafness or astute political divisiveness, he excluded African Americans at the same time he welcomed them.

“MAGA,” a Trump campaign slogan that has festooned countless homemade signs and red caps, means “Make America Great Again.” Some of us wonder whether it really means “Make America White Again,” which would transform the acronym to “MAWA.” Doesn’t have the same ring, does it? Of course, conservatives piously deny that MAGA carries racist overtones. Until yesterday, they could say that with a straight face.

What Trump Said

With thousands of people rallying against police violence all over the country, sometimes violently, here’s what a reporter asked President Trump yesterday at the Marine One departure briefing:

"Q    Mr. President, are you — with your tweets today, are you concerned that you might be stoking more racial violence or more racial discord"

And here is how the President responded: 

“Not at all.  MAGA says ‘Make America Great Again.’  These are people that love our country.  I have no idea if they’re going to be here.  I was just asking.  But I have no idea if they’re going to be here.  But MAGA is ‘Make America Great Again.’  By the way, they love African American people.  They love black people.  MAGA loves black people.

“I heard that MAGA wanted to be there; a lot of MAGA was going to be there.  I have no idea if that’s true or not.  But they love our country.  Remember that: MAGA is just an expression, but MAGA loves our country.”

Here’s Trump's Positive Message

Trump's surface message was positive and welcoming, after all, “By the way, they love African American people.  They love black people.  MAGA loves black people.” That sounds positive because to love people is such a good thing.

So, isn’t that wonderful? “They love African-American people,” said Trump. It is so good to love people. Trump continued in a positive tone: “they love black people. MAGA loves black people.”

Related Link: Trump's Unifying Speech in South Korea

Well, again, yes, it’s great to love people. How, a Trump supporter could ask, can you call the President and his supporters racists when they love Black people so much? But…

Alas, Here Are Trump’s Divisive Undertones

ProPublica reporter Jessica Huseman explained what was wrong with Trump’s attitude in one quick tweet: “‘MAGA loves black people’ suggests black people aren’t a part of ‘MAGA.’ That they are outside of it. And that’s the point.”

To me, making America great should mean making all of America great. But, since I suspect that there are people who think that no diverse nation can be a great nation, we hear an undertone that making America great means undoing an African American’s presidency and restoring racial boundaries.

What else? Trump also said, “I heard that MAGA wanted to be there; a lot of MAGA was going to be there." So, to Trump, there were people who protested police brutality, and there was MAGA, and "a lot of MAGA" was going to show up. Again, two distinct groups.

So, what Trump's quick statement told us – between the lines – is that the people who Make America Great love Black people, but that MAGA supporters and Black people form two different communities. Political psychologist Bethany Albertson offers a theory that helps us understand this. She talks about what she calls “multivocal communication.” This is communication that uses the same words to send different messages to different audiences, thus multivocal. We hear a surface meaning, which, in this case, is that Trump and his supporters love Black people. But people who are tuned in will hear the underlying message that Black people do not belong to the MAGA crowd. I assure you, dear readers, that no one, and I mean no one, tunes into multivocal meanings more attentively than the typical Trump supporter. If liberals didn't get the message, most Republicans caught Trump's drift right away.

The way the United States' political situation is structured, a candidate can win reelection by taking just over 50% of the vote. In fact, the Electoral College system lets a candidate win, as Trump did in 2016, with slightly less than 50%. But if governance requires consent of the governed, what happens when a leader excludes huge chunks of the population from consideration? That can only lead to bedlam, which is, of course, what is happening on the streets today.

Trump's multivocal comment accomplished two purposes. He pretended, for just a moment, to support racial harmony. He also set up a racial divide. Tricky, isn’t it? It’s awkward for liberals to complain that Trump and his supporters love Black people. It is, however, unlikely that his supporters will overlook that he endorses them over Black people. Some voters are equal, George Orwell might have said, but some are more equal than others.

Doug Burgum on Mask-Shaming: How to Be Persuasive in a Conservative State

During his coronavirus press conference yesterday, North Dakota’s Republican Governor Doug Burgum opposed mask-shaming. His simple thesis was that a mask is a health precaution, not a political statement. To make his point, he showed great rhetorical skill by reframing the argument into a medical rather than political issue, while he established emotional appeals by giving examples of people who have medical reasons to wear mass and appealing to North Dakota pride.

In the bizarre world of 21^st century American politics, taking simple public health precautions to reduce coronavirus spread has, too often, created political firestorms. President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence do not wear masks in public. President Trump famously referred to coronavirus news reports as “their new hoax.” Vice President Mike Pence's staff required a group of business executives to remove their coronavirus masks before he would meet with them.

North Dakota is a deeply Republican, pro-Trump state with a strong libertarian tradition. Governors, however, need to deal with practical concerns of wise governance that escape Washington’s attention. True to its libertarian tradition, North Dakota does not require citizens to wear masks in public. Nor did Burgum urge citizens to do so. Nor did he wear a mask during his news conference. He did, however, ask North Dakota’s citizens not to shame mask-wearers. Sadly, someone needed to say that. People have shamed me on social media when I suggested wearing masks in public. There have been reports of Trump supporters taunting and assaulting people whose only offense was to wear a mask.

Yet, Burgum wanted to establish an attitude of tolerance for people who wear masks. How did he handle his persuasive challenge?

First, he appealed to unity: “we are all in this together and there’s only one battle we are fighting about, the battle of the virus.” That is, his method was to speak in what persuasion specialist Charles Urban Larson calls a unifying style rather than the more divisive pragmatic style. In that way, Burgum sought to encourage action through unity rather than by dividing us from one another.

Related Link: Reagan or Trump? A Unifying Republican versus a Divisive Republican

Second, Burgum reframed the debate away from politics, denying that wearing a mask was “ideological or political or something.” He explained that, “If someone is wearing a mask, they're not doing it to represent what political party they're in or what candidates they support.”

Also, avoiding a rhetorical mistake that liberal speakers have been known to commit, he ratcheted the value question down to a personal level. Denying that mask-wearing was political, he continued tearfully: “They might be doing it because they’ve got a 5-year-old child who’s been going through cancer treatments. They might have vulnerable adults in their life, who currently have COVID and they’re fighting.”

Someone, like all too many liberal speakers, might say boring, abstract things, like: “it is the moral thing to protect other people from being infected.” What Burgum said carried much more power. He talked about a cancer-stricken child or suffering adult. By being concrete, Burgum flung his point out with a punch.

Yes, we can bridge the gap between conservatives and liberals. We do, however, need to speak in a language that other people will understand. As the conservative, libertarian governor of a conservative, libertarian state, Burgum showed us how it can be done.

Dear readers, please stay healthy!