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.”

  • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
    40·
    3 months ago

    Attacking the capital was a last-ditch hail mary move, and only viable when he controlled the military.

    They’re going to use baseless conspiracies to try to fuck with the election certification enough (with an assist from the courts) to force a contingent election in the House, where they’ll likely have a majority of state delegations.

    • rayyy@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 months ago

      The whole Republicans house is in on it again. They have a multi-prong plan to seize the White House, from voter suppression to elector rigging, gerrymandering and outright violent intimidation. The coup will be much better planned this time.

      • rekorse@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, but if you know that then certainly the current administration knows that.

        Last I checked Biden still controlled the NSA, CIA, and FBI.

        Do y’all really thing something being “legal” is all it takes?

    • Pappabosley@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 months ago

      Love to see the face of Jan 6 2.0 rioters, when they realized someone in power actually wants to stop them this time

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        You made me think of Vincent Vega, beause this is how I feel about that prospect.

        Boy, I wish I could’ve caught him doing it. I’d have given anything to catch that asshole doing it. It’d been worth him doing it just so I could’ve caught him doing it.

        Bring it on, traitors.

      • Triasha@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 months ago

        They don’t need a riot this time. Mike Johnson will refuse to recognize the results and then the house will vote for the next president with each state receiving one vote. Republicans control a majority of house delegations, so they will vote for Trump.

        The riot was a smokescreen. It was to buy time to strong arm the state legislatures and convince Mike Pence to not certify the results. With Johnson on board, they can forget the smokescreen and just steal the election in plain sight.

        They only need the house of representatives to steal a presidential election. The only thing that could stop it is some house Republicans voting with Democrats to remove Mike Johnson as speaker. (Or, I guess, finding their conscience and voting for Harris as a state delegation.