President Donald Trump appears to face a demographics problem as the 2026 midterm election nears, and one analyst thinks his "crusade to rehabilitate the Confederacy" could make matters worse.
Stuart Stevens, an advisor to the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, joined The Bulwark's Tim Miller on the "Bulwark Super Speed" podcast on Tuesday to discuss the issue Trump is having with recruiting new voters to the Republican Party. Trump has previously touted gains he made among Black and Hispanic voters as evidence of his ability to grow the party. Stevens suggested those voters may be tiring of Trump's policies, some of which appear racist.
"The Trump coalition that existed was always kind of a Faberge Egg because you had MAGA that would demand you chase gardeners through Brentwood with masked men, and if you did that, you were going to hurt yourself with Hispanics without a doubt," Stevens said.
Stevens also addressed Trump's comments that the 2024 election was an endorsement of his policies.
"I don't think that it's an endorsement of Trumpism," Stevens said. "They knew that Project 2025 was poison. Now they're making people drink it. It's not going down any easier."
"They did a little better with African-Americans, only 87% voted against them [in 2024]," he added. "This crusade to rehabilitate the Confederacy isn't particularly helping them with African-Americans. We've seen that little boom that they had with young voters, particularly male voters, seems to have collapsed."
"Right now, racism is working completely to the benefit of the Trump people," Stevens said. "They get out there and they can use all this racial stuff and it works, and no one in the Democratic party is calling their number on it. No one is making them pay for being racist."