Woke hysteria makes an election-season comeback — as Trump fans the flames

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Lowry, R. (2026, October 16). Woke hysteria makes an election-season comeback — as Trump fans the flames. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/16/opinion/woke-hysteria-makes-a-comeback-as-trump-fans-the-flames/

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New York Post · collected 2026-10-16 · by Rich Lowry

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Story summary

In the lead-up to the 2026 election, President Donald Trump has reignited cultural debates, capitalizing on what he sees as a resurgence of "woke" ideology. After winning the swing states and popular vote in 2024, Trump had previously shifted the national conversation towards mass deportation and conservative policies, drawing support from non-aligned media voices and even causing NFL players to perform his YMCA dance during games. This period was dubbed a "vibe shift," marking what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Woke 1.0's decline. However, now the cultural atmosphere is shifting back towards mass hysteria, fueled by new controversies like an alleged gang rape at a Portland Trail Blazers game, echoing pre-2024 election tensions. Trump’s ability to sway public opinion and regain influence could significantly impact his political standing once again.

Written for “Trump Fans Woke Hysteria Controversy” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans strongly right (beta estimate) Confidence high 2 quote(s) discarded as not found in the article
Leaning: leans strongly right for article 85995 (high confidence, 5 verified quotes) · logged 2026-10-16

Story

📰 Trump Fans Woke Hysteria Controversy
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
3 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans strongly right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
67/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Who wrote this

Rich Lowry
6 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Trump’s standing will have much to do with whether such a thing happens.
2026-10-16 · assertive framing · Woke hysteria makes an election-season comeback — as Trump fans the flames
🔮 Winston Churchill said that “wars are not won by evacuations” — and sometimes, he might have added, they are simply embarrassing.
2026-10-10 · assertive framing · Iran war bared a hidden flaw: Shore up US bases — or risk disaster
🔮 Richard Nixon, who never stopped trying to rehabilitate his reputation, would be delighted to know his defenders have had some posthumous success in his behalf.
2026-10-05 · assertive framing · Richard Nixon’s new GOP fans can’t brush off his stained legacy
🔮 In 2026, his tariff policy may help tank Republicans in the midterms.
2026-09-26 · assertive framing · Trump’s tariff vow helped win the White House — now it may cost him Congress
🔮 Jones, who achieved notoriety for her role as an editor of the paper’s “1619 Project,” believed that putting her daughter in rotten elementary and middle-school schools would strike a blow for racial equity.
2026-09-22 · assertive framing · ‘Perverse priorities’ made Nikole Hannah-Jones put her cause before her child
Also by Rich Lowry
Iran war bared a hidden flaw: Shore up US bases — or risk disaster
2026-10-10 · New York Post
Richard Nixon’s new GOP fans can’t brush off his stained legacy
2026-10-05 · New York Post
Trump’s tariff vow helped win the White House — now it may cost him Congress
2026-09-26 · New York Post
‘Perverse priorities’ made Nikole Hannah-Jones put her cause before her child
2026-09-22 · New York Post
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 6 articles by Rich Lowry →

Topics

American Democrats NFL The Portland Trail Blazers YMCA

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 7× Democrats NORP · 3× George Floyd PERSON · 2× Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez PERSON · 1× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Michael Brown PERSON · 1× NFL ORG · 1× Shane Gillis PERSON · 1× The Portland Trail Blazers ORG · 1× YMCA ORG · 1×

Narrative

And it’s always possible that the woke ideology is too extreme to regain its ascendancy. But the power of this point of view never depended on public persuasion so much as having allies in positions of influence, and bullying fence-sitters and cowards to go along.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-16
🔮 Trump’s standing will have much to do with whether such a thing happens.
2026-10-16 · New York Post
Woke hysteria makes an election-season comeback — as Trump fans the flames · assertive framing

Claims (24 extracted, 3 hedged)

After sweeping the swing states and winning the popular vote in 2024, President Donald Trump took office with a sense that he occupied the center and had dealt the cultural left a grave blow. asserted
he → sweep → blow
Non-aligned or heterodox voices in the podcasting world and media had gravitated toward him, alienated by the illiberalism and exotic concerns of contemporary Democrats. Significant elements of Silicon Valley swung his way. asserted
elements → gravitate → Valley
Trump won the debate over trans policy, and he made mass deportation — once considered outlandish — a mainstream issue. asserted
deportation → win → policy
Sensing which way the wind was blowing, corporations begin ditching their DEI programs. asserted
corporations → sense → programs
There wasn’t the immediate backlash against Trump’s election the way there had been the first time around, and he enjoyed some cultural cachet — NFL players, for instance, did on-field versions of his YMCA dance. asserted
players → be → dance
All of this was referred to as a “vibe shift,” and it seemed a punctuation mark on what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now calls Woke 1.0. asserted
Cortez → refer → what
Today, though, the vibe is bad again, and bears resemblance to the environment prior to Trump’s return to the White House. asserted
vibe → bear → House
Once again, the elite culture is in the grips of a mass hysteria, this time about an alleged gang rape at a college campus rather than a fatal police interaction with a black suspect, whether Michael Brown or George Floyd. asserted
culture → allege → suspect
But the triumph of narrative over fact, and the abiding belief in the systemic repression of a victim group, are the same. asserted
triumph → abide → group
Once again, a comedian saying supposedly offensive things has led to widespread condemnations — of the same Shane Gillis who was dumped as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member during Woke 1.0. asserted
who → say → Woke
Once again, people are being hunted down and cancelled for dumb things they said long ago: The Portland Trail Blazers fired their new TV announcer immediately upon learning that he posted a couple of offensive things on social media as a 15-year-old. asserted
he → hunt → old
The culture is unlikely to reach the same level of insanity it did after the death of George Floyd, when seemingly every major institution in American life instantly adopted a DEI mindset — but the woke fever has dissipated, not broken. asserted
fever → reach → mindset
The most consequential political leaders tend to pull the other party in their direction. asserted
leaders → tend → direction
This is what Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher did with the Democratic and Labour Parties, respectively (via Bill Clinton and Tony Blair). asserted
Reagan → do → Clinton
We won’t know how Democrats ultimately decide to react to Trump until 2028 or perhaps 2032, but the party is radicalizing at the moment rather than trying to retreat to a relatively sensible center. asserted
party → know → center
This creates the possibility of an even more inflamed, DSA-inflected Democratic Party taking unified control of Washington in 2028, and allying with — and supporting via policy decisions — the woke forces in the culture. asserted
Party → create → culture
Trump’s standing will have much to do with whether such a thing happens. asserted
thing → have → much
Right now, 2024 feels like a long time ago, when Trump positioned himself as the common-sense candidate more in tune with everyday concerns and sensibilities than his opponents. asserted
Trump → feel → opponents
He’s currently underwater on nearly every issue, and many of his interests — building projects, naming disputes — aren’t those of the public. asserted
many → ’ → public
The same Trump who has been a check on cultural radicalism could, as his second term enters its third and fourth year, become an accelerant on it. uncertain
term → enter → it
Now, it might be that Democrats don’t have the blow-out midterm that they expect, in part because the party is still radioactive. uncertain
party → have → part
And it’s always possible that the woke ideology is too extreme to regain its ascendancy. But the power of this point of view never depended on public persuasion so much as having allies in positions of influence, and bullying fence-sitters and cowards to go along. asserted
power → regain → sitters
What we know is that this tendency hasn’t gone away, and it could be set to flow again rather than ebb. uncertain
it → know → What
The vibe isn’t what it was in 2020, a year of mass irrationality, but it’s disquieting all the same — with the potential to get much worse. asserted
it → disquiet → potential
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