Attention, American men: Donald Trump and his allies want you to believe your vote says big things about your masculinity.
In the final weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the Republican nominee is amping up his hypermasculine tone and support of traditional gender roles, a reflection of the surgical campaign-within-a-campaign for the votes of men in a showdown with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
But where Harris is deploying “dudes” who use bro-ey language and occasional scolding to boost her support particularly among Black and Hispanic males, Trump’s camp is meeting men in alpha-male terms, often with crude and demeaning language. That means he appears on podcasts, gaming platforms, and alongside surrogates who define American manliness as a vote for the former Republican president.
“If you are a man in this country and you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you’re not a man,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said on his podcast.
Subtle, it’s not. But the razor’s edge contest between Trump and Harris elevates the importance of small caches of voters who are apathetic or on the fence in the battleground states poised to decide the election. So in a twist on gender and identity politics, both camps are reaching out beyond their ideological bases.
“You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is?” former President Barack Obama scolded Black men last week in Pennsylvania, the largest battleground state. “That’s not acceptable.”
The polls and history tell the story of the candidates’ pursuit of support from men. Trump, who has a long history of denigrating women and bragging about the size of his body parts, won among men in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton and in 2020, when he lost to President Joe Biden.
This year, men appear to be leaning toward Trump and women toward Harris, though the size of the gap varies across polls. Both campaigns are working toward stronger showings among genders where their support is weak — or at least losing less among those groups.
“We cede zero ground in reaching the voters who will decide this election,” said Harris campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster. Meanwhile, he said, Trump’s approach is “hardly a way to win over voters, especially women.”
The nation has an unbroken list of male presidents, who have been presented as father figures, role models and archetypes of American masculinity. Their ranks have included military heroes, including George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lawmakers such as Abraham Lincoln, Obama and Biden. A son of the South, Bill Clinton. An actor-turned-governor in Ronald Reagan. And scions like John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush — a Texas rancher.
Then there’s Trump, the New York developer and entertainer whose political fortunes have survived a troubled presidential term, 34 felony convictions, a jury verdict finding him liable for sexual assault and two assassination attempts. He rose from a shooting in July, blood-splattered and fist raised, yelling, “Fight, fight, fight!”
The Trump campaign said men like Kirk “are our teammates in our shared mission to win this election.” But even their statement nods to Trump’s emphasis on toughness and his grievance toward the media.
“The notion that women need to be coddled and can’t be tough is a fake media narrative,” said campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez.
He’s taking a paternalistic approach as part of a strategy that his campaign hopes could help him not just among men, but also among suburban women who might hesitate supporting him. Trump has long aimed misogyny at women who challenge him.
