Donald Trump is in no shape to pivot from a GOP primary to a general election
Trump is openly purging his coalition of anyone who isn't MAGA
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MARCH 4, 2024 9:44AM (EST)
(Salon) One of the moldiest political tropes around is the one that says a presidential candidate needs to run to the base during the primaries and then pivot to the center once he or she locks down the nomination. It makes some strategic sense, for sure, and we've seen it in action many times — but it doesn't always work. Donald Trump is not one for standard campaign strategy so even though he's the de facto nominee of the Republican Party for president, he's not making any kind of pivot to the center. If anything he's embracing the MAGA base ever more tightly, even though there is a substantial minority of his party that's rejecting him in these primaries.
....(snip)....
The AP reported on the anti-Trump vote in GOP primaries from their AP Votecast surveys over the weekend, noting that while many of those who voted for Haley are Democrats or independents who didn't vote for Trump in 2020 "about 1 in 10 early contest voters who said they supported Trump in the 2020 general election said they wouldn’t be doing so this year." So this group exists and it's a problem for the Republicans.
As a result, according to a different AP report, many in the Trump camp would like him to make that pivot to the center, the sooner the better. Campaign professionals understand that this Never Trump faction is his Achilles' heel but his people are committed to "let Trump be Trump" — mostly because they have no choice. People have tried to get Trump to soften his edges in his previous campaigns and he's simply incapable of doing it.
....(snip)....
Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita told the AP, "Their role is to provide the organization 'to amplify and to force project' Trump’s message." And they insist that he is already running his general election campaign against President Joe Biden which means that what he's saying in his rallies right now is the general election message. Well, that message is so extreme it's very hard to believe that the 10 percent of Republicans who say they're not going to vote for Trump again will come around in the fall. He's going further than he's ever gone before and people are going to see all this eventually. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/04/donald-is-in...a-general/
Trump is openly purging his coalition of anyone who isn't MAGA
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MARCH 4, 2024 9:44AM (EST)
(Salon) One of the moldiest political tropes around is the one that says a presidential candidate needs to run to the base during the primaries and then pivot to the center once he or she locks down the nomination. It makes some strategic sense, for sure, and we've seen it in action many times — but it doesn't always work. Donald Trump is not one for standard campaign strategy so even though he's the de facto nominee of the Republican Party for president, he's not making any kind of pivot to the center. If anything he's embracing the MAGA base ever more tightly, even though there is a substantial minority of his party that's rejecting him in these primaries.
....(snip)....
The AP reported on the anti-Trump vote in GOP primaries from their AP Votecast surveys over the weekend, noting that while many of those who voted for Haley are Democrats or independents who didn't vote for Trump in 2020 "about 1 in 10 early contest voters who said they supported Trump in the 2020 general election said they wouldn’t be doing so this year." So this group exists and it's a problem for the Republicans.
As a result, according to a different AP report, many in the Trump camp would like him to make that pivot to the center, the sooner the better. Campaign professionals understand that this Never Trump faction is his Achilles' heel but his people are committed to "let Trump be Trump" — mostly because they have no choice. People have tried to get Trump to soften his edges in his previous campaigns and he's simply incapable of doing it.
....(snip)....
Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita told the AP, "Their role is to provide the organization 'to amplify and to force project' Trump’s message." And they insist that he is already running his general election campaign against President Joe Biden which means that what he's saying in his rallies right now is the general election message. Well, that message is so extreme it's very hard to believe that the 10 percent of Republicans who say they're not going to vote for Trump again will come around in the fall. He's going further than he's ever gone before and people are going to see all this eventually. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/04/donald-is-in...a-general/
