{"id":2608152,"date":"2026-05-29T06:57:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-wont-always-be-able-to-deflect-to-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:57:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:57:02","slug":"democrats-wont-always-be-able-to-deflect-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-wont-always-be-able-to-deflect-to-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats won&#8217;t always be able to deflect to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-wont-always-be-able-to-deflect-to-trump%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2608152&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the first allegations of sexual assault fell on then-Democratic Rep. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/eric-swalwell\/\">Eric Swalwell<\/a> while he was still the anointed favorite in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4533616\/swalwell-open-secret-democratic-politics-guy-benson\/\">California\u2019s governor\u2019s race<\/a>, his camp\u2019s first strategy to fend off the controversy was to blame President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4\">Donald Trump<\/a> and his supporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Swalwell eventually faced public claims of harassment and rape from more than five women and calls for his congressional resignation from more than 50 former staffers.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4586603\/platner-collins-feud-over-iraq-war-service\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Platner and Collins feud over his \u2018decision to serve\u2019 in Iraq War: \u2018Slap in the face\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4586575\/aipac-antisemitism-focal-point-michigan-democratic-primary-debate\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>AIPAC spending and antisemitism emerge as focal point in Michigan Democratic primary debate<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4585486\/talarico-talafreako-taunt-merch-paxton\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Talarico embraces Paxton\u2019s \u2018Talafreako\u2019 taunt with new merch line<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the charges emerged, former campaign spokesman Micah Beasley said: \u201cThis false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How Republican agents could somehow influence former Democratic staffers and progressive social media influencers to accuse a then-high-ranking Democrat of serious misconduct was not made clear. Within days of the alleged victim\u2019s statements emerging, Swalwell no longer clung to the MAGA theory, ending his gubernatorial campaign and resigning from the House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ugly public theater remains one of the best examples of Democrats using the Left\u2019s hatred of Trump as a cure-all and defense against any questionable policies or corruption charges. With hatred of Trump standing as a primary political philosophy and a motivator for the Left, it begs the question of who or what could replace the president once he heads a lame duck administration before eventually leaving the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Emma Alves, senior attorney at Alves Law and a student of election strategy, Democrats are effectively running on Trump\u2019s unpopularity. She cites a May 2026 NPR\/PBS News\/Marist poll showing the president\u2019s overall disapproval rating at 59%<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). (Jeff Chiu\/AP photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is the largest disapproval in Marist\u2019s history for both of Trump\u2019s terms, and that\u2019s the number on which Democrats are running \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s working,\u201d Alves said. \u201cBut is \u2018blame Trump\u2018 now a reflex, rather than a stance?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She points to the Swalwell situation this spring as an example of the blame pattern. The first MAGA plot didn\u2019t stick. It gained time, but lost credibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf the Democrats flip the House after 2026 and it\u2019s two years of lame duck governance, do the Democrats become a party that hasn\u2019t established a forward-looking identity?\u201d she asked. \u201cThe blame Trump tactic has an expiration date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Phillips is a former CNN commentator and a radio host with a daily show on KABC in Los Angeles and KSFO in the Bay Area. He believes nothing supersedes Trump hatred as a focus for Democratic voters in his native and Democratic-dominated California. Even with its nationally-publicized problems of crime, poverty, homelessness, and affordability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have a good friend whom I won\u2019t name,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cShe\u2019s on the Left, but she\u2019s smart and fun to talk to over a couple of drinks. She\u2019ll look around and admit she hates the crime. She hates the homelessness. She moved out of Los Angeles because of it. But she considers all of that just the reality of living in California. The only thing she cares about as a voter is resisting Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phillips calls the obsession \u201corange man bad\u201d and sees a convenience in the Trump obsession for Democrats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn that way, (Trump) is the best thing that ever happened to (Democrats),\u201d he added. \u201cLook at the disaster California has become under one-party blue control for a couple of decades now, with its population declining for the first time in history. (Democratic officials) and liberal voters avoid reevaluating their policies by blaming everything on Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-deflection-strategy\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A deflection strategy<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Offering a legal analogy in place of a political take, former U.K. Crown Prosecutor and current defense attorney Michael Kruse cites the all-encompassing Trump blame as a form of classic deflection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe pattern of political deflection strategy follows the same logic that I see argued in courtrooms,\u201d Kruse said. \u201cBlaming Trump works the same way deflection works in a trial, as it buys time, but it has a hard limit. Deflection tactics provide temporary confusion and uncertainty for an audience to continue listening, but once it becomes too obvious that the actual underlying facts are indisputable, the deflection tactics cease to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kruse believes Democrats will stop using Trump as a fall guy and will need to find something else to blame. It\u2019s a question of when and who or what they\u2019ll accuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn court, when a defense has exhausted its ability to deflect blame, it will begin to attack the process as opposed to addressing facts,\u201d Kruse explained. \u201cThis tactic is predictable and easily recognized by juries. Voters will also recognize this tactic as blaming a system (in place of a person) is much less likely to invoke emotion and much less likely to stick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Christopher is a New York-based political strategy and public relations consultant for Democratic campaigns throughout the state. He acknowledges Trump is one of the Democratic Party\u2019s most effective political foils but does not reduce that dynamic to mere scapegoating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDemocrats do not invoke Trump simply because he is polarizing,\u201d Christopher said. \u201cThey invoke him because he represents an unprecedented concentration of political, judicial, and economic power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christopher holds that what makes Trump politically durable as both a target and a mobilizer is not just his rhetoric, but the perception that nearly every major lever of federal power has increasingly aligned around him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRepublicans control Congress. The conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court has expanded executive latitude, and the executive branch itself has become more centralized and confrontational under Trump than under perhaps any modern presidency. Trump remains such a powerful political focal point for Democrats beyond simple outrage politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4460164\/trump-endorsement-tracker-gop-2026-election-primaries\/\">TRUMP ENDORSEMENT TRACKER: HERE\u2019S WHO THE PRESIDENT HAS PICKED IN GOP MIDTERM ELECTION PRIMARIES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christopher sees some truth to the criticism that Trump has become such a dominant political \u201cgravity well\u201d that many Democratic officials reflexively invoke him to redirect attention away from local governance failures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe danger for Democrats is that anti-Trump politics alone is rarely durable without a compelling affirmative vision,\u201d he said. \u201cRunning against Trump is politically easier than governing in a country where trust in institutions continues eroding across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>John Scott Lewinski (@johnlewinski) is a writer based in Milwauke<\/em>e.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the first allegations of sexual assault fell on then-Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell while he was still the anointed favorite in California\u2019s governor\u2019s race, his camp\u2019s first strategy to fend off the controversy was to blame President Donald Trump and his supporters. Swalwell eventually faced public claims of harassment and rape from more than five<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3277,"featured_media":2608153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WB.Campaign.060326.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WB.Campaign.060326.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2608152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2608153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2608152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2608152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2608152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}