JOHNSTOWN, Sept 5 — He lauds strongmen autocrats, hangs with martial arts stars, and has no greater compliment than calling someone a "fighter.” Donald Trump is going all out for the macho vote in November’s election — and it’s working.

The real estate tycoon and former president has long crafted an often cartoonish, hyper-masculine image — most controversially including bragging about sexual assault.

Now, in an election where Kamala Harris is vying to become America’s first woman president, Trump’s macho powers are being put to the ultimate test.

Harris is seeing a surge in female support and has made the question of abortion rights a top campaign issue.

Trump, meanwhile, is unapologetically drilling down into the part of the electorate that loves cryptocurrency, the ultra-violent Ultimate Fighting Championship, and thinks society has become too feminine and "woke.”

"He speaks to our generation,” said Nick Passano, standing with four tattooed fellow Millennial cryptocurrency investors who dub themselves the Maga Boyz, at Trump’s Make America Great Again, or MAGA, rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, last Friday.

"We have to set the tone in regards to what we want our children to emulate, which is strong masculine men. And he very much represents that,” said Passano, 37, one of several men who spoke to AFP about the "manosphere” aligning with Trump.

They wore shirts with crass imagery — Trump giving the middle finger — and said he should not put up with "any more BS.”

It might seem a stretch for a billionaire, golf-playing 78-year-old to pose as a bad boy, but Trump knows more than perhaps any other US politician about marketing.

His response to being convicted on 34 felony charges in New York in May was to attend a UFC bout a few days later, winning thunderous applause from the crowd of 16,000.

And at July’s Republican convention, just days after Trump survived an assassination attempt, pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off and hailed Trump as a "gladiator.”

Voters, it seems, are watching: a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds Trump up against Harris by five points among men — and Harris leading among women by 13.

Alpha male

When President Joe Biden was still seeking reelection, Trump’s strategy was unambiguous.

Although only slightly younger than the president, Trump hammered his opponent as weak and senile — and reveled in the battering he delivered during their June debate.

The entry of 59-year-old Harris means Trump is facing someone far younger.

Trump also has to contend with the risk that his brash — critics would say bullying — style will backfire against a female and Black opponent.

But University of Pittsburgh communications professor Paul Johnson said Trump won’t — and likely can’t — switch tone.

Trump is pushing the "Trumpian worldview,” Johnson told AFP — a world that is "nasty” and where "‘real Americans’ need to be ready to fight for it, to say uncomfortable and racist truths about the world, and if necessary to use violence.”

This is reflected in Trump’s frequent reposting of crude, sexualised attacks on Harris and his attempt to play the race card by questioning whether she is really Black.

For young voters at the Johnstown rally, however, that’s just Trump being unafraid.

"Him being himself I feel is the reason I like him so much,” said Wyatt Waszo, a 21-year-old restaurant worker.

Fighting ‘male malaise’

The macho movement goes far deeper than just Trump.

Trump’s claims about Democrats jettisoning masculinity and killing off male-dominated blue-collar professions like manufacturing and mining strike a chord in electorally strategic rust belt communities.

And it’s a message echoed on countless right-wing radio shows and influential podcasts about the so-called "male malaise.”

It’s a backlash against globalism and the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University.

"Trump’s game is playing into fears of losing what you have.”

Polling by nonpartisan researchers PerryUndem last year shows 82 per cent of Republican men say society today punishes men "just for acting like men.”

Harris has so far notably avoided anchoring her campaign around the historic goal of a first female presidency. And Democrats hope her earthy running mate Tim Walz will help balance the ticket in the gender wars.

The 60-year-old Minnesota governor may be a liberal, but it’s the other half of his CV that the party thinks helps him most: military veteran, former school football coach, hunter and ice-fisherman. — AFP