Donald Trump filed a trademark application for his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” on November 19, 2012, even though he claimed that he had no plans to run for office at the time. Since trademark applications typically take a long time to process (his was approved in July 2015), this suggests that Trump had planned his campaign for quite a long time, applying mere days after the last presidential election.
Trump rose to prominence in the political scene after Obama was elected. He served as the voice for the racial backlash against Obama’s presidency among conservatives, and he also led the “Birther Movement”. Trump demanded to see Obama’s birth certificate, and this event was widely covered by the media.
While Trump’s methods were unorthodox and morally questionable, he was able to win the White House by exploiting trends within the Republican Party, such as the conservative Tea Party movement. He also took advantage of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the government, mainly caused by the Great Recession of 2008, by stating his position as an “outsider” who was new to politics.
Sources:
AP US History
https://trademarks.justia.com/857/83/make-america-great-85783371.html
I agree with you that his methods were a bit unorthodox, but I think that his general plan of getting to the presidency was not. He used fear mongering in order to strengthen his base and to make people fear an america without Trump. Using fear is not a new tactic, as it has been used since government has existed. Even people like Hitler used it in order to rise to power. So even though he appears on the outside to be using an unorthodox tatic, in reality he is using a tried and true method. Just because we don't usually see presidents be so brasen about it, it looks completely new to us.
ReplyDelete