Conservatives celebrate the president’s lightning strategy but wonder if the gains will hold.
President Donald Trump has moved at lightning speed since being reelected to implement more than 200 executive orders, redefining U.S. policy on immigration, energy, race, education, crime, freedom of speech, and religion.
When it comes to the culture wars, say conservatives, Trump has not only regained ground but also opened new fronts, presenting issues such as the environment and immigration as matters of common sense values. Whether those gains will hold is an open question.
Trump has been adept at using online media to circumvent established newspapers and networks to control narratives on cultural issues, according to Jonathan Choe, an independent journalist and senior fellow with the Discovery Institute.
“Trump, at the end of the day, is a businessman and a showman,” Choe told The Epoch Times. “He understands media. He’s understood it for decades, and he knows how to quickly pivot to new media.
“The Trump White House, in my opinion, that entire media team, has done a spectacular job of understanding the shifts in culture, but also in the media,” he said.
That doesn’t necessarily translate to lasting gains.
Darryl Hart, a history professor at the conservative Hillsdale College, told the Epoch Times, “I don’t think he is changing many minds, certainly not on the other side.”
“The polarization is really strong,” he said.
This view is supported by recent polling data that suggests Americans remain sharply divided on cultural issues.
Regarding gender issues, a May survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that, while only 41 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s performance in general, 52 percent supported his policies on transgender issues, which include barring transgender-identifying boys from girls’ sports and private spaces. Responses were split according to party, with 90 percent of Republicans supporting Trump’s policies and 81 percent of Democrats opposing them.
This raises the issue of how enduring some of Trump’s policies might be if Democrats retake the White House at the end of his term. Election wins on Nov. 5 in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City, as well as a popular vote in California to redistrict the state’s electoral map, show that the opposing side remains a powerful force in America.
