President Donald Trump has placed racial animus at the center of his reelection campaign, and even some of his critics believe it could deliver him a second term.
Every successful modern presidential campaign has been built on the notion of addition, winning over voters beyond core supporters. But Trump has chosen division on the belief that the polarised country he leads will simply choose sides over issues like race.
He intensified his attacks on Wednesday, blasting four young congresswomen of color during a rally in Greenville, North Carolina. The crowd responded by chanting, "Send her back!" echoing Trump's weekend tweet in which he said the lawmakers all American citizens should "go back" to the country from which they came.
"I do think I am winning the political fight," Trump declared at the White House.
"I think I am winning it by a lot."
"Regardless of whether his tweets are racist or not I'm not saying they are or not he is getting the media to make these extremely liberal, socialist, foolish congresswomen the face of the Democratic Party," said Terry Sullivan, a frequent Trump critic who managed Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 Republican presidential campaign. "What he's doing here is sad, but it's smart politics."