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.”

  • invertedspear
    27·
    1 month ago

    This implies he’s conniving. I don’t think he’s mentally fit enough anymore. Behind closed doors he worries about what will happen if he loses and they tell him, “you don’t need the votes, we’ll fix it if you don’t get them” and he’s just not with it enough to not brag about how smart and great he is. He lets things slip all the time. So now he’s made speeches saying people won’t have to vote, they’re going to fix it for him, etc. His team is likely freaking out that he keeps slipping, but it’s mixed in with so much bullshit rambling that it’s easy to play off. We absolutely need to be prepared for fuckery this fall.