The Transcendent Ineptitude of Calling Trump ‘Broke Don”

Milking the "defeated" and "crushed by debt" for laughs.

Source: Bloomberg

If they issued warrants for political malpractice, somebody from the Biden campaign would have been arrested this week. From The Hill:

“President Biden’s reelection campaign has dubbed former President Trump ‘Broke Don,’ taking a strategy out of Trump’s playbook … Trump has used nicknames — from “‘Little Marco’ to ‘Crooked Hillary’ to ‘Lyin’ Ted’ — to put down a variety of opponents...

“Now, the Biden team is seeking to turn the tables in attempting to make one stick to Trump while it worked this week to highlight the former president’s lagging fundraising numbers in the 2024 race.”

Could anything be more tone deaf? It starts with the decision to adopt Trump’s name-calling tactic. That’s a terrible idea. First, Trump has a lifetime of practice at name-calling and they’ll never do it as “well” as he does. Secondly, name-calling appeals to a certain kind of personality – one that’s less likely to support any Democrat. It also clashes with Biden’s “brand” as the decent guy running against a creep. (The genocide in Gaza has already hurt that brand; why make it any worse?)

The nickname they chose was even more inept. “Broke Don” mocks his opponent for having money problems — in a country where tens of millions of people have money problems.

It's true that Trump’s campaign is broker than Biden’s. Biden’s campaign had $155 million in cash on hand last month, versus Trump’s $42 million. Trump raised $10.9 million in February while Biden brought in a whopping $53 million. But bragging about all the money you’re bringing in from Wall Street isn’t exactly a winning political play.

It gets even worse. From The Hill:

“Biden (has been) telling crowds at fundraisers this week that ‘a defeated man’ came up to him and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt.’ 

“’I had to say, ‘I’m sorry Donald, I can’t help you,’’ Biden joked.”

Who’s his speechwriter — Marie Antoinette? This line paints Trump as someone with money problems and Biden as the deep-pocketed tycoon who could help him but won’t. Who are voters more likely to identify with —the debtor who asks for help, or the snob who turns him down in a time of need?

And Trump isn’t the only butt of the joke. It milks ‘defeated people’ who are ‘crushed by debt’ for cheap laughs.

“I can’t help you” frames Biden as the figure most working people hate: The banker who says ‘no to a loan. The boss who won’t give you a raise. The judge who gives you a fine you can’t pay.

“Broke,” on the other hand, is something lots of people can identify with. Americans carry $17.5 trillion in total debt, an average of $104,215 per household.

Broke? One in four Americans told pollsters they have a net worth of $0 or less — meaning they owe more in debt than they own in assets. That’s “broke-ish,” if not downright broke. This group includes roughly one-third of all Boomers, who are heading into retirement (voluntary or otherwise) without any accumulated wealth.

“Brokeness” and “brokeishness” are more common among voter groups that Democrats must persuade and motivate to win in November. Black households are more likely to have negative wealth than White households, as Pew Research reports, while poorer White households barely hover above the “Broke” line. Americans who are predominantly (but by no means exclusively) younger carry a total of $1.727 trillion in student debt.

The White House doesn’t understand why more workers aren’t celebrating its economic record. One of the big reasons is debt. The cost of servicing household debt dropped dramatically during the pandemic and was 8.31 percent of disposable income when Biden took office. It’s 9.89 percent today. That rise was fueled in large part by the Federal Reserve’s multiple increases in interest rates, which were done with Biden’s tacit (and sometimes overt) approval.

By mocking Trump as “crushed by debt,” Biden is inadvertently characterizing his opponent as an American Everyman. We live in a nation that’s “crushed by debt.” I can’t imagine a worse political move, but I suspect there will be at least one. Life is long, after all, and election campaigns are even longer.

“The great American comeback continues,” the president recently said of the economy. But that’s not what a lot of people are feeling. Their minds won’t be changed by catchphrases and nickname games, especially ones that seem to mock their plight.