Trump slow to invest in states that could decide election as some in GOP fear 'skeleton' campaign
In his bid to retake the White House, few states hold as much promise for Donald Trump as Michigan.
The former president has already won the state once and President Joe Biden, who reclaimed it for Democrats in 2020, is confronting vulnerabilities there as he seeks reelection. Trump’s campaign promises an aggressive play for Michigan as part of a robust swing-state strategy.
But, at least for now, those promises appear to be mostly talk. The Trump campaign and its partners at the Republican National Committee haven’t yet made significant general election investments in the state, according to Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra. The national committee, he said, hasn’t transferred any money to the state party to help bolster its operations heading into the general election. There are no specific programs in place to court voters of color. And there’s no general election field staff in place.
Good.
The RNC is dumping so much money on Trumps legal fees and expenses, that running an actual campaign becomes more and more impossible.
I dont remember the source right now, but I read that large parts of the RNC at the state-level are already practically bankrupt. If thats true, then we might have an even weaker GOP in the comming years.
Turns out if everyone is just grifting, you cant build anything in the long run. I hope their efforts are crippled for a very long time. At best they never recover.
If Project 2025 comes to pass and they have sweeping powers they'll find a way to siphon federal money into the RNC
It won't be hard when all oversight is gutted or populated with members of Trump's Mafia. Once they have enough control they can ensure they always win future elections. Sort of like Putin does.
I remember those reports, the media buried them because they greatly prefer the appearance of a close contest. The GOP is turbo fucked.
Yeah. Remember how the Russian military was a laughing stock for a while after failing to steamroll through Ukraine?
That’s what you get from a government full of grifters and cronies. At least in our case it’s mostly one party, but waaaay too many people are happy to go along with them.
Who needs campaign money when the plan is just to storm the capitol again?
Michigan is bankrupt and needs RNC to support them. They've also experienced a lot of internal turmoil, which is a horrible combination. Considering the 2 percent margin that Biden won MI by, RNC needs to be completely on top of their game in MI to flip it. That or for Biden to make a huge error.
Like supporting Israel's genocide of Palestinians when there's a substantial Palestinian and Arab population in Michigan?
Supporting Israel is definitely Biden's biggest and ongoing political mistake so far, but we have yet to see whether its actually a huge error. I'm hoping Biden turns around his decision sooner rather than later because too many people are suffering, and things will get worse in the US if Trump wins as I bet a huge reason may be because of Israel.
Which is crazy, because the alternative is a guy who fully supports Bibi and loves to see brown people suffer
No, see, passively continuing policy while trying to rachet it back when you realize how unpopular something is with your base is exactly the same as active hostility and escalation, fully justifying my refusal to participate in the system. I'm very smart.
Almost as smart as those who have the magical thinking that a third party candidate is clearly the only choice to solve this problem
No, see, the spoiler effect, a well-documented phenomenon, isn't real and is just a lie to keep people from voting for third parties, who are super for real going to affect anything positively this time! It's your fault for not abandoning the only party with a chance to win against the fascist party in favor of checks notes Cornel West, a candidate so unserious he declared his party affiliation with the People's Party (a bunch of definitely not grifters featuring such intellectual titans as Jimmy Dore and Jesse "the Body/Mind" Ventura) only to immediately switch to the Green Party, only to immediately switch to Independent. Math isn't real and I'm very smart.
Take a look, Republicans! You're emulating your hero Russia, where the top officials steal everything! Isn't it great!?!
Yeah, they really do think it's great.
I guarantee those two idiots got eaten by COVID.
The circle of life and all that.
They probably do think it's great.
The only problem they see is that they're not the ones on top of the pyramid. So instead of seeing / fixing the problem, they're focused on grifting their way up there.
Why spend money when the plan is election fraud from the beginning?
LOL the GOP is now a vehicle to pay off Trump's legal woes.
I'd fear a skeleton campaign. They're pretty spooky.
Roll for initiative.
The problem is that about 30% of the country could be described as political zombies, because that’s roughly the proportion of people who support him unquestioningly. And don’t forget all the other rich assholes who are trying to help him, for no other reason than they want his tax break handouts.
Another 33% are clueless or indifferent morons who don't even vote
So vote
All of us here know that. Gotta go to the booger eating festival and spread the word there for whatever idiots somehow still haven't figured out wtf is going on.
This is what I've been saying. The MI GOP is such a mess that they can't mount an effective campaign. They are busy infighting and they are dead broke. Without money and organization from outside, they aren't going to effectively be able to mount any kind of ground game here. The state is Biden's to lose, not Trump's to win, I don't care what the polls say. Once the campaign is in full swing, democrats will be organized, motivated, and effective while Republicans will be confused and disorganized and unable to challenge the narrative of the left.
Time is getting tight for them to fix it, and Trump had surrounded himself with sycophants and grifters rather than effective political experts. He's also going to be very busy with trials which will cut down on his campaigning and hence the effectiveness of his personal brand of "charisma". So I don't think they would be able to fix it if they had all the time in the world, but we will see.
There’s a lot of extremely wealthy people who effectively have infinite money and want to see the Republicans in power. Trump’s probably hoping that, after the rubes’ donations have been diverted to his legal funds, these shadowy plutocrats will quietly step in and ensure that the races that matter are amply funded.
Look at the Truth Social IPO. They already are
You think that money is going to down ballot races instead of directly into Trump's pocket,???? Lol
They don't give a shit about down ballot. Down ballot doesn't matter when you control all three branches of government, imprison or kill all your enemies, and replace the entire federal beauracracy with toadies.
They don't care about consequences because they do not intend to suffer them.
My man, what do you think “down ballot” means?
What part of this do you not understand? They don't care about down ballot races because they intend to install a dictatorship. You think Putin gives a shit how much funding down ballot candidates get? Fuck no. They just install whoever they want or have sham elections.
You: They will control the House, Senate, and Presidency.
Also You: They don't care about voting in House and Senate races.
Somehow Also You: What don't you understand about my previous statement?
Down ballot is where the gerrymandering and state supreme courts work together to kill democracy.
Fear will keep the local systems in line.
Fuck the republican traitor filth.
I'm sure trump feels he already won. No need to campaign.
it's kind of amazing that campaigns do anything anyway, this election more than ever. what could an ad or a rally convince anyone of at this point?
Quick check shows that 2020 election had the highest turnout of the 21st Century. About 66% of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot.
Getting those apathetic folks to the polls would mean a huge win for one side or the other
"Fun" fact: In 2020, more people voted for Donald Trump than for any candidate in any previous election. It's a feat that Joe Biden also did at the same time, plus an extra 7 million votes.
Hopefully, Biden gets an additional 20 million on top of the previous seven.
They must be crushed.
Bear in mind that you're in a "politics" community comment section, so you're probably much more informed about the subject than the vast majority of people.
There are a surprising number of people that think their options are either voting for the Republican that's blasting them in the ass or the Democrat that's blasting them in the ass. There are also a bunch that truly don't see their lives changing much, regardless of who wins.
Convincing them that one option will be better for them/their loved ones/the world is difficult, but very possible. This also includes motivating supporters to cast a ballot at all.
Money in a political campaign is the single biggest factor in its performance at the polls.
expanding on Noliij's point, the changes that the president and their party pushes are usually impacts that are slow to roll out, which makes it hard to really note the difference in party and candidate. This applies more if you're less politically informed, and is a boon for Republicans.
He is going to lose so bad it’s going to cause the greatest laughter this country has ever experienced.
I can only hope. I'm rather nervous about the election. Since his entire voter base in a cult. And the other side has their eyes on what's going on in Gaza.
Me too, Biden has to fix shit in Israel real quick (doubt) or start actually telling Israel to fuck off to start reducing liberal dissidents.
We said that in 2016 though. So.
Just saying. Don't boo - vote.
Boo and vote.
Give Trump the Boote [BOHT]!
👻 ➕ 🗳️ 🟰 ⛵
while he will certainly lose the popular vote, he and the cult are busy setting the stage for Jan. 6th round 2. every trick to steal it will be tried and by how feckless our judicial system has been, I have very little hope of our institutions holding this time.
it's got to be an epic, undeniable drubbing, else we're all wearing red hats this time next year.
edit- in case anyone doubts it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/26/rnc-2020-election-stolen-trump-hiring/
I've been wondering why so many GOP reps are bailing early. Starting to lean towards internal polling shows them getting smoked.
Trump sucking up all the party funds for legal fees screws those down ticket races. Plus McCarthy is in the background working on revenge against MAGA candidates who forced him out. With Kevin having been the party fundraising champ.
Dumbass could still get an EC win. And the GOP is going to throw every way possible of cheating behind this election. But their chances aren't looking as good as the news wants to suggest to keep some drama going this far out.
Trump wants all the money of the RNC to go to his legal bills. He doesn't have time to worry about trifling things like "battleground states".
Oh haven't they heard? The plan is to have another insurrection. They don't need a campaign.
This system sucks. Pandering to one state when they are 50 doesn't help any citizen. I know it's important and I will vote. But I can't help but think it's fuckin moronic.
Trump would need to spend far too much money to win an election just to stay out of prison. Even then, it's dicey. The smarter play would be to fleece the RNC and anyone else as much as possible, and then take his money to some 'shit' nation that will let him walk free for a price. Russia, are you listening? Melania want to go home.
He should not be allowed to leave US soil. Too many security vulnerabilities that our enemies would love to exploit. Once he’s gone; especially if to a non-friendly nation-state; it becomes near impossible to secure.
At least with him here he can be monitored and babysat by highly-trained security personnel.
I don't know if that is even possible, given our laws, rights and so many sycophants.
Trump's not retaking a fucking thing.
Trump's dying in Federal custody.
Me (a serious reporter): Should I maybe write a story that points out weaknesses and flaws in the fascist candidate’s strategy so as to call attention to them and perhaps get them to fix those flaws? Yes, I think that would best serve everyone.
Making it clear that a fascist is weak also weakens them. They gain power on the appearance of strength. Pointing out that they don't have any breaks this illusion.
I hope you’re right. I guess the laser focus on a swing state in the opening just struck me the wrong way. I understand and endorse blasting them for being underfunded/underprepared but the way it started read to me like “hey you are making a mistake, look at this!” and that grossed me out.
Honestly it's good.
Trump is not going to stop embezzling from the campaign, and the more people point out the problems the more chance there is that the republicans start infighting, and donors drop out.
All the news networks have been hedging their bets on a fascist takeover. Many of them are also directly or indirectly owned by billionaires who would benefit from said takeover.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In fact, the former president’s team has rolled back plans under previous leaders to add hundreds of staff and dozens of new minority-outreach centers in key states without offering a clear alternative.
“By combining forces, the Trump campaign and the RNC are deploying operations fueled by passionate volunteers who care about saving America and firing Joe Biden,” he said.
Hoekstra was among a handful of Michigan Republican leaders who trekked to Florida last week to meet privately with Trump and members of his senior campaign team about plans for the general election.
The centers were seen as a critical resource in boosting the Republican Party’s relationships with minority groups who have traditionally voted Democratic, but may be open to the GOP’s populist message.
On Tuesday, Lara Trump wrote “Awesome!” in sharing a social media post from Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk that highlighted the group’s efforts to organize “full-time ballot chasers” in Arizona and other states.
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign earlier in the month launched a $30 million six-week advertising blitz targeting swing-state voters with a particular focus on Black and Hispanic-owned outlets and “culture and sports programming such as Comedy Central and ESPN.”
The original article contains 1,351 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Trump doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. This should t be a surprise.
Doot doot
They ran out of cash already? Good.