antagonize

There is more willingness to embrace the youth vote, rather than antagonize it, as far as campaign strategy goes.

Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested that it doesn’t matter if Republicans antagonize female voters because they can be replaced by male voters.

That was a sharp turnaround from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who feared that a larger American military footprint could antagonize Beijing.

Knowing how Trump thinks — and assuming everyone else thinks the same way — he no doubt believes that it wouldn't be wise to antagonize this man with whom he once conspired to destroy people's reputations.

“When we are fighting for our survival, we can’t afford to antagonize either Biden or Trump,” Mr. Merezhko said.