Every news outlet has once again given oxygen to a Trump campaign jingle. As is widely known, Donald trump teased out a new slogan, “send her back!” at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina. The now infamous “send her back” chant rang out among the crowd for some 12–15 seconds depending on the calculation of the reporter. CNN’s Jim Acosta, for example, calculates 13 seconds (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/cnns-jim-acosta-on-send-her-back-chants-trump-is-trying-to-gaslight-his-way-out-of-this-mess/) while Ashley Pratte for NBC writes of 15 seconds (https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-racist-words-send-her-back-cheers-were-shocking-ncna1031256).
There are different theories circulating as to the reason and the effects of the chanting:
- to stir up or throw red meat to a group of seemingly unquestioningly loyal supporters of Donald Trump referred to prosaically as “the base”
- a calculated effort (to continue) to divide Americans along racial, ethnic, religious and/ or genealogical/ancestral lines
- to distract people from the failure of the fruition of campaign promises
- to obfuscate the testimony of Robert Mueller who outlined Trump’s crimes in the Office of the Special Counsel’s report originally scheduled for oral presentation to Congress and the public on July 17, the same day as the Greenville, NC rally
- to silence four new, outspoken, and motivated as well as motivating female, non-Caucasian members of Congress by implying that they are hostile and foreign to America, read Trump
Let’s put the rally chant in perspective. As Elizabeth Warren has correctly seen and addressed more so than any of the other current Democratic presidential contenders, Donald Trump’s original presidential campaign focused on emotive perceptions captured in succinct slogans rather than policy initiatives. Infamous chants from the 2015–2016 campaign include “build the wall!” and “lock her up!”. No matter how fervently or loudly repeated, neither phrase now attracts the same degree of enthusiasm. Cutting to the chase, Donald Trump needs a new slogan for his 2020 campaign to animate and inspire his followers.
However, the rhetorical effect of “send her back” is more general and targeted at the same time. As has been pointed out, ‘to send back’ conveys a degree of foreignness, a sense of not belonging and being in the wrong place. To inspire through tweets and implication a chant of ‘send back’ dismisses the credibility of another on the basis of an insider/ outsider mentality. The chanters and their leader are the insiders who belong, who are not foreign. They point to and distance themselves from the outsiders who are promoted as those who do not belong, in this case those who are not indigenous.
Of course the idea is wrongheaded in the sense that the only people who truly have a claim to belong to what is now referred to as American soil are the Native American /Indian tribes who inhabited this land before the arrival of the European settlers. Trump’s campaign jingles, though, focus more on expressions of emotive perceptions about what does not belong in his America than on rational thought or reflection. Also, to pick apart the rationality of the jingles only digresses and distracts from the specific point that I would like to make.
Rhetorically speaking, the second component of the slogan is the direct object of the verb, the feminine pronoun ‘her’. The feminine direct object pronoun is the target of the chant. The audience members at Trump’s rally in North Carolina responded to vitriol leveled against four progressive female members of Congress. In particular, they specifically directed their ire towards Minnesota’s duly elected Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, whom Trump had just criticized as foreign and un-American. The rhetorical force of the slogan, “send her back!”, links foreignness and femininity. The referent ‘her’ is actually quite ambiguous and can be used against any woman. In this way, the phrase presents a false equivalence that conveys a perilous sentiment that should cause every American to pause for thought.
More importantly in the context of the Trump campaign, the slogan offers a new rallying cry and one that can be used against the presidential candidate Kamala Harris who is currently sky rocketing in the polls, which has surely not been overlooked by the minions of said campaign. The ramped up attacks on four non-white, inspiring congresswomen in recent days laid the groundwork for the longevity and ferocity of the new “send her back!” jingle at the Greenville rally. The circulating ‘birtherism’-like attacks on Senator Harris already promoted in some media outlets and also by Don Jr. foreshadow the strategy that the Trump campaign will use to attack her, should she be the Democratic Party’s nominee. After all, Kamala Harris is a formidable opponent, whom the Trump campaign has very little means otherwise to attack. At the same time, the general idea of foreign and femininity captured in the words “send her back!” can potentially be used more sweepingly against any female presidential opponent.
Spurred on by presidential tweets and speech, the chant reflects how Trump and his campaign are teasing out new emotive topics easily encapsulated in a mnemonic mantra to manipulate and motivate voters. Certainly, “send her back!” violates the melting pot principle a proud America used to hold dear and dangerously casts a wide net around all women, including more specifically two of the president’s three wives. The campaign jingle “send her back!” is a sign of uglier things to come and sends a warning shot across the bow of the presidential race.