Conservative Marc Theissen column: Trump built a winning coalition. White nationalists will destroy it.

Tucker Carlson’s attempt to elevate neo-Nazi figure Nick Fuentes into respectable conservative circles is not only morally indefensible but politically disastrous for the right. Anyone defending Carlson’s effort to sanitize Fuentes should ask themselves a basic strategic question: Do they want conservatives to remain a movement capable of winning majority support, or not? Because no political coalition that openly flirts with white nationalism can realistically hope to maintain meaningful support among nonwhite voters, who are essential to any sustainable electoral majority.

It is true that Democrats continue to struggle with White male voters. In 2024, the party even launched a multimillion-dollar initiative called “White Dudes for Harris,” specifically targeting White men in the critical Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The effort failed, and Vice President Harris lost White male voters by a double-digit margin. But it is equally true that Trump’s performance with this group was basically unchanged from his showings in 2016 and 2020. His support among White voters overall remained roughly stable as well.

Yet in 2024, Trump won far more emphatically than in 2016. This time he not only swept every key swing state but also secured the national popular vote with 49.9 percent — just a hair below an outright majority. So if his numbers with White voters barely budged, what explains this considerable improvement? The answer is simple: Trump dramatically expanded his support among nonwhite voters.

In 2020, he captured 36 percent of the Hispanic vote; in 2024, that climbed to 48 percent — a monumental 12-point jump. His backing among Asian Americans rose from 30 to 40 percent. And among Black voters, he more than doubled his support over the past eight years: from just 6 percent in 2016 to 15 percent in 2024, including nearly one quarter of Black men. Trump also saw an 11-point surge among Jewish Americans, growing from 24 to 35 percent since 2016. The Republican Jewish Coalition reports that nearly one-third of Jewish voters now identify as Republicans, the highest share ever recorded.

His gains extended to legal immigrants as well. In 2024, he earned 47 percent of the vote among naturalized citizens — nine points more than he received four years earlier and only slightly behind Harris’s 51 percent. More strikingly, he won 57 percent of newly naturalized voters who had not participated in 2020, including majorities of White and Hispanic naturalized citizens and large gains among Asian naturalized citizens. By contrast, Biden had carried naturalized citizens by a hefty margin in 2020.

In short, the coalition that propelled Trump to victory in 2024 was substantially more racially and ethnically varied than the one he assembled in his previous campaigns. His support increased virtually across the board. That is how he moved from losing the popular vote twice to winning it decisively.

A rational political movement would recognize this achievement and work to strengthen these new relationships with minority communities. But instead, parts of the right appear determined to alienate these voters by tolerating, defending, or promoting outright white supremacists. It is both morally abhorrent and strategically clueless.

Republicans’ recent inroads with minority voters will evaporate quickly if they refuse to repudiate someone like Fuentes — a man who screams for Mexicans to “get the f— out” of the country, insults JD Vance’s family with racist slurs, derides the idea of a South Asian First Lady, praises Jim Crow, claims White Americans are justified in being racist toward Black people, and calls for “the death penalty” for “perfidious Jews.” These are not fringe comments; they are an unambiguous expression of hate.

Nevertheless, some conservatives have chosen to attack fellow Republicans who object to Carlson’s platforming of Fuentes. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts went so far as to accuse Carlson’s critics of being part of a “venomous coalition” spreading division on the right. The dispute became so severe that Robert P. George — one of the most eminent conservative scholars in America — resigned from the Heritage Foundation’s board after Roberts refused to retract his comments. The resignation underscored a grim reality: a movement that makes space for Fuentes, Carlson, and Roberts but not for someone like Robby George can no longer credibly call itself conservative — nor can it survive politically.

Winning elections requires expanding your coalition, not shrinking it. Trump built a more diverse voter base by focusing on economic opportunity, public safety, and a pragmatic approach to legal immigration — not by leaning into racial grievance. While he pushed hardline policies against illegal immigration, he did not adopt the restrictionist stance some nativists demand for legal immigration. This approach helped him piece together a broader and more inclusive conservative majority.

How ironic it would be if the right allowed white nationalist rhetoric to sabotage the very multiracial coalition that delivered Trump’s biggest electoral success to date — essentially replicating the worst aspects of the left’s identity politics, but in a narrower and more poisonous form.

If conservatives allow open racists to take root within their ranks, they will destroy their own prospects. It is political self-immolation.

Source: The Washington Post