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.”

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Trump has done literally hundreds of things he “can’t” do and only one person has come anywhere close to stopping him.

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          What are we gonna do, harangue each other about it? Easy there, we don’t disagree about anything. This is serious.

          Merely voting is minimal effort. Last election I sent dozens of “vote forward” letters across the country. Will you?

          https://votefwd.org/