Trump never relied on maximizing the Republican base.
Trump grew the base. My first election to vote in was Reagan's 2nd term. Those are the only two Presidential candidates that grew the base, thus the term Reagan democrats.
Much of the same criticism leveled at Trump was also thrown at Reagan. Both of these men took their message beyond the bosses to the people.
On the DEM side, they have the Teamster Leadership, SEIU Leadership, AFL-CIO, Machinist Leadership, and various other groups.
Trump ignores the gatekeepers. He talks to the truckers, to the hotel workers, to the airline mechanics. He acknowledges the obvious. He agrees that your jobs were stolen through absolutely unfair trade deals. Even worse, these were all called FREE Trade deals to make the actual policy more palatable.
The people who get up in the morning and go to work everyday and make this economy work for everyone know Trump. They also know and love America.
The MSM/DEM/NeverT's will never learn this. They are stuck w/ the old model of funneling money through Unions and bosses delivering votes. There is just not much demand for that anymore. The same thing happened w/ blacksmiths.
And by the way, no Republican can be elected w/o growing the base!
Never Trumpers suffer from raging impotence.
Raging impotence and irrelevance.
I can't wait till Trump wins again in November (not getting complacent either). Obviously, there will be many reasons to be happy. But one is that it will show that four solid years of rabid tweeting by the NeverTrump cuckolds was absolutely worthless. Risk Wilson, Jonah Goldberg, David French, Jennifer Rubin, all of them. Every single last tweet will have been a total waste of time. All of their venom-spewing rage will have been a waste of energy that could have been used for more productive purposes. I think that part will be the most gratifying for me.
The same "conservatives" who are opposing Trump right now opposed him in 2016, why is any of this even news?
This^
This^
Lol romney today.
Pleeeease pay attention to meeeee
There are millions of dem->Trump voters like me. RINOs have no sway over us.
Nice Republican Party you have there. Ours now.
You and OP are 100% correct. Growing the base, and attracting the middle, and maybe even some of the other party are HOW ELECTIONS ARE WON. They aren't won by think tanks or academic papers. They are won by speaking directly to the people about things they care about in a language they can understand. It's not complicated at all.
Exactly. Imagine being such a schmuck as to say to yourself, " I like all of Trump's policies...but GWB and Colin fucking Powell said they won't be voting for Trump... so I guess I won't vote for Trump."
No real person would say such a thing except as part of the dialogue during some deranged never trumper's wet dream.
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Trump is a RINO. and I'm not saying that as an insult. He used to be a Democrat back in the day. Now he is neither. He is something new and transcendent. He is Teddy Roosevelt with a Bull Moose Party.
MAGA Party
I agree, sort of. Perhaps differently stated.
I feel Trump has always known that the Dems and Reps were the same thing. And he played them both like a great businessman he is. He has always seen the evil Deepstate and has wanted to eradicate that. What party has ever been for that? Perhaps Ron Paul's but he knew you can't win a base with that terrible vehicle.
Trump is a true American, a true Patriot if there ever was that lived in the White House.
I like what you said about MAGA Party. He most definitely is the founder of that.
His brief period as a Democrat, during the GW Bush years, is way overblown. Considering what we know now about Bush it isn't even surprising.
Teddy is who Trump reminds me of, but history may see Trump as the greatest since Lincoln.
Trump is guiding us through a civil war of traitors in our halls of power and culture.
Republicans (especially anyone in office before Jan 20, 2017) suck ass!