Former United States correspondent, now France Inter’s head of information, the journalist Philippe Corbé publishes on January 7 Weapons of Mass Distraction (Grasset). A analysis of Donald Trump’s return to power in which the journalist dismantles his art of shock and the perpetual show, as we have just again lived through with the spectacular abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. In this excerpt from the book, the author examines the end of the second Trump campaign for the White House, in 2024, marked by transphobia.
“[Donald Trump] chooses his subject as one designs an advertisement on a large billboard by the side of a four-lane highway, where the eye fixes. The one that no driver can avoid. In the final stretch of the 2024 campaign, he decides to push the trans question.
More than one hundred million dollars of advertising space are bought in the last three months, concentrated on football games, the market’s most expensive screens. In one of these spots, an excerpt from 2019 is heard where Kamala Harris defends the public funding of transition surgeries for prisoners, then her support for the participation of transgender athletes in sports competitions.
And finally, the slogan: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you”. They/them, the neutral pronouns used by some non-binary or trans people. Kamala is for iel, Trump is for you. Two measures like a refrain. Always Kamala, never Harris, to reduce the vice president to a condescending first name. The press dissects the advertisement, notes that the subject concerns a tiny number of cases, recalls that Harris was merely defending a law applied at the time by the Trump administration. No matter, everything comes back to the slogan. You versus They.
Angry Parents
The responses are excellent. Behind the tinted glass of qualitative studies, pollsters describe the anger of parents in the name of safety and their daughters’ chances. Gut-level language, no numbers. A rare topic, transformed into a central controversy, calibrated to reach a precise target: college-educated suburban parents, rather centrists, who had distanced themselves from the Republican Party after the questioning of abortion rights. The advertisement serves as a springboard to a broader narrative: Democrats trapped by their progressive wing, speaking for others rather than for you. Harris dodges, trying to bring the discussion back to abortion. She counts on women’s mobilization, but Trump manages to galvanize men.
This new topic fuels a constellation of podcasts to which the candidate devotes more time than to traditional media. He can speak to a target audience there, young men, the bros, the fratboys, the dudes, who get information on YouTube or TikTok via these influencers who usually focus on sports, girls, betting, crypto. A generation adrift in the post-MeToo era. Since the start of his campaign, Trump spends a lot of time on these shows, where he is welcomed as a virile warrior, reassuring as a grandfather, in relaxed and admiring conversations. He invites some of these hosts onto Trump Force One or on the golf courses.
Manosphere Operation
This is the Manosphere operation, which flatters a masculinity fantasy that these young people associate with Trump. It allows him to address young Hispanic and Black voters. A few days before the election, he is the guest of Joe Rogan for three hours: 26 million listens in 24 hours, more than 50 million before the election. Why bend to the questions of daddy’s media when the most-watched TV news program gathers barely 7 million viewers?
For nearly two years, he has hammered the same themes—inflation/immigration—until saturation. In the final weeks, he finds a high-intensity motif to cut through the noise. He amplifies it with fear, hammering the screens, saturating the podcasts, conservative talk shows, medium-wave stations and Fox News so that they regurgitate the same thing: Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
