As odd as it is to see Trump tell the public that the GOP presidential ticket doesn’t “need the votes,” it’s the message behind the message that makes the rhetoric so much worse.

You don’t need to be an expert in electoral politics to understand Rule One of any campaign: Candidates should pursue as many votes as possible. In a democracy, it’s common sense: The more votes a campaign has, the greater the chance of success.

With this in mind, Donald Trump appears to have a counterintuitive rhetorical habit. The New Republic noted:

On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.

As a clip from the show makes clear, the former president didn’t appear to be kidding: https://x.com/atrupar/status/1816482779581775943

If the phrasing sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. The day after last month’s presidential debate, for example, Trump held a rally in Virginia and told attendees, “We don’t need votes.”

  • Laereht@lemmy.world
    8·
    5 months ago

    One good thing about this era we find ourselves in is the growing understanding that the rich and powerful aren’t smart or good in any way. As soon as all of us realize this, the sooner we can achieve a world run by those that are intelligent and interested in actually running things properly.

      • Laereht@lemmy.world
        3·
        5 months ago

        As they say, aim for the moon… And if you miss…I guess you get to enjoy the immensity of the universe? Optimism might be foolish but here we are narrowly avoiding authoritarian control day by day. So that’s at least something

    • flerp@lemm.ee
      3·
      5 months ago

      The problem with that is that most of the poor are not really smart either. On average we’re a pretty dumb species.