Barring a monumental October surprise, Trump’s best hope is to run against the protesters and hope that he can scare undecided voters into his camp. Think of Willie Horton, only to the nth power. Can it work?
It can’t be written off entirely, particularly if the violence becomes more intense and widespread, but conditions are significantly different now than they were in 1988. Public perceptions of the two candidates are much less fluid than they were 32 years ago. Partly as a result of that, and partly due to ideological polarization, there are far fewer undecided voters now than there were then. There was no pandemic and no recession in 1988. It is difficult for Trump to make the case that he alone can stop the violence when he isn’t actually doing it. Finally, Biden will fight back against the Trojan Horse narrative. He learned from Dukakis’ mistakes.