Trump senior official says campaign is actively trying to 'suppress' voters

Donald Trump peers out at his supporters.

(Image credit: Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

published 27 October 2016

Donald Trump is losing in the polls, and his staff and aides all know it. But this is no ordinary election, and Trump is hardly running an ordinary campaign. In response to the ugly numbers, Trump — who has spent the last month complaining that the election will be "rigged" — is reportedly working his own strategy to make sure some people don't vote at all:

To compensate for [his poll numbers], Trump's campaign has devised another strategy, which, not surprisingly, is negative. Instead of expanding the electorate, Bannon and his team are trying to shrink it. "We have three major voter suppression operations under way," says a senior official. They're aimed at three groups Clinton needs to win overwhelmingly: idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans. Trump's invocation at the debate of Clinton's WikiLeaks e-mails and support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership was designed to turn off Sanders supporters. The parade of women who say they were sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton and harassed or threatened by Hillary is meant to undermine her appeal to young women. And her 1996 suggestion that some African American males are "super predators" is the basis of a below-the-radar effort to discourage infrequent black voters from showing up at the polls — particularly in Florida. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

This is not typically how campaigns behave: "Campaigns spend millions on data science to understand their own potential supporters — to whom they're likely already credible messengers — but here Trump is speaking to his opponent's," Bloomberg Businessweek writes. "Furthermore, there's no scientific basis for thinking this ploy will convince these voters to stay home. It could just as easily end up motivating them."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.