Trump only has one play: turning up the racism dial and hoping he gets the larger half of the divide. It’s the old Nixon strategy, as described by Pat Buchanan: if they “cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half.”

Since it’s unclear what the actual policy is, it’s difficult to evaluate in those terms. But that’s a sign of how little the actual implementation matters: It’s all about Trump and how he can win, no matter how many people are hurt in the process.

In 2018 we saw the same thing. Republicans had done nothing with their majority except slash taxes for Trump and his cohorts. The economy was growing then; Trump doesn’t even have that now. It’s just white identity politics all the way down https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/gop-mid-term-campaign-all-identity-politics/573991/

This is all going to get much worse before November, because Trump is entirely indifferent to how his decisions affect the country, except in as much as he can take advantage. It does not matter who suffers; not even if it’s his own base. They’re there to help him win, that’s it.