Trump, GOP have pretty good ammo

They'll run against the Democrats for their real or alleged socialism, anti-Semitism, faint and weakening loyalty to Israel, Islamophilia, and palling around with terrorists, or at least terrorist sympathizers.

We're going to hear a lot about Ilhan Omar, if she's not a tragic victim of stochastic right wing terrorism.

In Attacking Ilhan Omar, Trump Revives His Familiar Refrain Against Muslims

Mr. Trump and his team are trying to make Ms. Omar, one of a group of progressive women Democratic House members who is relatively unknown in national politics, a household name, to be seen as the most prominent voice of the Democratic Party, regardless of her actual position. 

And they are gambling that there will be limited downside in doing so.

. . . .

Mr. Trump is banking on painting the entire Democratic Party as extreme. 

And Ms. Omar has become a point of contention for some members of her own party, after remarks she made about the Israel lobby were condemned as anti-Semitic by some long-serving Democrats, as well as by Republicans and Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Trump’s electoral success in 2016 was based partly on culture wars and fears among an older, white voting base that the country it knew was slipping away. 

Like his hard line on immigration, his plays on fears of Muslims — including inaccurately conflating them with terrorists — proved polarizing among the wider electorate, but helped him keep a tight grip on his most enthusiastic voters. 

In the South Carolina Republican primary in February 2016, for instance, exit polls showed that 75 percent of voters favored his proposed Muslim ban.

Now, as he looks toward 2020, he is betting that electoral play can deliver for him again. 

It is a strategy that risks summoning dark forces in American society, a point Ms. Omar made in a statement Sunday evening.

If some wingnut kills her, will that hurt Trump or the GOP?

Nah.

Trump aides and allies say they are pleased that some of the Democratic hopefuls for the 2020 presidential nomination are defending her against the president’s attacks, claiming they think it will be damaging for them in the general election.

Ms. Omar “is the perfect embodiment of the sharp contrast President Trump wants to paint for 2020,” said Sam Nunberg, a 2016 campaign aide to Mr. Trump. 

He added that Mr. Trump is tethering Ms. Omar to more visible Democrats, like her closest ally in Congress, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, whom Republicans have sought to make a boogeyman.

. . . .

Geoff Garin, a veteran Democratic strategist, said the Democratic presidential candidates who had responded to Mr. Trump’s latest attacks on Ms. Omar were keeping the focus on his tactics. 

And he predicted that the use of such graphic images from one of the nation’s darkest days would backfire for the president.

“Voters are turned off by the use of 9/11 for political purposes, and my guess is that moderate voters are going to see Trump’s use of that as both ugly and extreme,” Mr. Garin said. 

“I think his over-the-top exploitation of 9/11 is going to turn more voters off than he wins over by attacking the Democrats on this.”

Dream on, fool.