Actually, harnessing racism to strengthen a political party isn’t a new concept. What Trump is doing is similar to what caused the Republican and Democrat ideology swap in the late 1960s and 1970s. Long story short, then President Johnson (a SOUTHERN Democrat) signed into law the Civil Rights Act in 1964 (which banned segregation and discrimination based on race,gender,religion in jobs,etc). Before this point in time, dating all the way back to the time around the Civil War, the political LEFT were REPUBLICAN and the political RIGHT were DEMOCRATS. Well, after Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, some southern Democrats didn’t like it and jumped shipped to the Republicans. Not a majority, but enough that Republican politicians noticed and started deploying the “Southern Strategy” (google it for a more in depth of what that is) to harness racism for political power. In just a a decade, a vast majority of the South were no longer Democrats and were firmly behind Republican candidate Reagan.

That’s the power of harnessing racism in politics. A large section of the country, who had been voting one way for 100 years, flipped allegiance in under a 10 years because of it. Not only that, but it worked. From 1969 - 1993, all but 4 years of it (Jimmy Carter’s presidency) had Republican as President. This is what Trump is doing. He knows he’s not popular. Before he got elected, Democrats, and even his fellow Republican politicians, didn’t like him. He knows his popularity is low, so he’s employing a 2K version of the Southern Strategy. But, instead of against African American people, he’s harnessing hate against Muslims, Mexicans (heck anyone who speaks Spanish), migrants, etc