How Trump campaign targets millions of white voters – and activates fears over rioting

Krishnan Guru-Murthy-29 Sep 2020

Presenter

The Trump campaign has been exploiting fears amongst white voters by targeting them with divisive and alarmist messages on social media.

Channel 4 News exclusively obtained a vast cache of data used by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign on almost 200 million American voters. Tonight – we meet the voters the Trump campaign wanted – and needed  – to win over.

The targets they identified were overwhelmingly white –  and the campaign knew exactly which issues they cared about.

Now the very same voters are being targeted again.

We report from Kenosha, where Trump recently visited – telling voters he was the man to stop the rioting and racial division. Tonight, we show how the campaign targets millions of white voters – and activates their fears over law and order.

Investigations Team: Job Rabkin, Guy Basnett, Ed Howker, Janet Eastham, Heidi Pett

News Production Team: Sola Renner, Michael French, Josh Ho, Matthew Cundall, Tim Bentham, Tony Fryer, Dani Isdale, Anna-Lisa Fuglesang

Watch the first part of our #DeterringDemocracy investigation.