Trump needs a 'Hail Mary' because his culture war campaign strategy is a flop: report

According to a report from Politico, Donald Trump is unlikely to get a boost in the polls over the NRA facing dissolution due to a civil suit over fraud and self-dealing because culture war issues are not resonating with voters in 2020.

As conservative pollster Frank Luntz put it: "America has changed."

In the past, hot button topics like the NRA and gun control would result in greater voter turnout for Republicans, but with the economy reeling and the Trump administration bungling the coronavirus pandemic which has led to over 160,000 deaths in the U.S., those issues have taken a backseat with voters.

As Politico's David Siders explained, 2020 has been a bad year for culture war talking points.

"The culture wars aren't working for Donald Trump," he wrote. "His law-and-order rhetoric isn’t registering with suburban voters. One of his leading evangelical supporters, Jerry Falwell Jr., was just photographed with his zipper down. Immigration isn't provoking the response it did in 2016, and NASCAR has spurned the president."

In any other year, a sitting Republican president could make the NRA lawsuit a key part of their campaign, however, pollster Luntz said it would have no bearing thisNovember.

“Every person who cares about the NRA is already voting for Trump. Suburban swing voters care about the right to own a gun, but they don't care about the NRA," he explained.

Noting that the embattled NRA is not in the financial position to help Trump the way it did in 2016, Siders wrote, "It's all about coronavirus and the economy, stupid. That's a problem for Republicans even the NRA has acknowledged."

Posing the question over whether the president can make the NRA lawsuit a key part of his appeal to be re-elected, Siders said he might but it would likely not make a dent in his numbers in the polls.

"Given Trump's inability to harness any other cultural issue so far in the campaign, it will likely take a Hail Mary for him to make it work," he wrote. "Trump has been running consistently behind Biden nationally and in most battleground states — unaided by issues surrounding civil unrest and the flag. Trump's best chance, most Republicans and Democrats agree, is for the coronavirus or economy to turn around or for his law-and-order rhetoric to gain traction."

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