His posts are polarizing though, which means a good half of the population may just accept and agree with it as much as one half shakes their heads.

Actually Trump knows this and is saying and doing what his base wants to hear. Believe it or not prior to politics he was quoted to support gay rights and abortion. He panders to the religious right and is trying to play left and right against each other by dividing, because that cements his right wing base. So such action taken by the left allow his supporters to dig in. It gives him publicity and he doesn’t care that it’s negative in the eyes of the left because he obviously isn’t pandering to the left in any way.