by Robert Romano
“As you can see today, we are expanding the electoral map because we will officially be playing in the state of New Jersey – we will win the state of New Jersey… We are also looking at… the state of Minnesota, which was not won [by the GOP] since 1952 and we’re leading in the polls, and the state of Virginia and actually a lot of other states, I don’t know, it could be all of them.”
It was former President Donald Trump at campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, May 12advocating for Republicans to compete in blue states in 2024, smelling political blood in the water with incumbent President Joe Biden, wisely seeking to put Democrats on the defensive in the face of continued Biden failures national polls that showed Trump ahead in the national popular vote for several months now.
Trump made the case for a 50-state strategy for the GOP, noting Biden’s weakness: “That guy [Biden] so damn bad it could be anyone. He’s so bad I think we’ll win them all.
Here, Trump is referencing Republican landslides that were possible just a few decades ago, such as Richard Nixon’s landslide 1972 Pogrom in 49 states, Ronald Reagan 1980 AND 1984 Landslides in 44 and 49 states and George H. W. Bush, respectively 1988 40 states won.
This has been done before – and done by playing for the popular vote and appealing to a representative portion of voters, regardless of political affiliation. And in the states Trump is talking about: New Jersey, Minnesota and Virginia, these are states where Republicans haven’t been competitive in decades. This makes the Democrats’ presidential electoral apparatus there comfortable and tender, and voters potentially open to an alternative.
Trump outlined his pan-American strategy, stating: “Across America, millions of people in so-called blue states are joining our movement based on love, intelligence and so-called common sense… Whether you are a Republican, a conservative, an independent or even a registered Democrat, please help save America, our country is in trouble…” and warn that on the country’s current path “we will end up in World War III, these guys are grossly incompetent, no I don’t know what they are doing.
Trump added: “You know in your heart that this country cannot survive another four years of dishonest Joe Biden… [H]”He’s the worst president we’ve ever had.”
Trump also outlined the issues he will raise in his national appeal, telling independents and Democrats dissatisfied with Biden: “We don’t have to agree on everything, but we can agree that we want powerful borders, not open borders, we want Americans not to dream about Biden’s inflation nightmare, we want secure communities to defund the police and abolish bail… and instead of Joe Biden’s weakness and chaos, we want peace through strength, like we had just four years ago.”
Here, Trump is exploiting the very evident weaknesses of Biden’s policies, both substantively and in the polls: rampant illegal immigration with millions of migrant refugees flooding the southern border, persistent inflation that continues to outpace incomes, rising violent crime and a easygoing crime policy marked in blue cities, and a messy foreign policy that seems to be inviting a war that threatens to draw America into a wider conflict.
This is a political tee ball. According to the latest national Harvard-Harris survey conducted on April 24 and 25only 38 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, just 42 percent of his handling of the economy and 38 percent of his handling of inflation, 41 percent say he is handling violence and crime well country, and 42 percent who approved of his approach to foreign affairs.
Trump accepts proposals 60–40 and assumes that Americans blame Biden more than they dislike Trump. In the same Harvard-Harris pollFifty-five percent of Americans say they approved of Trump when he was president, including 27 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of independents and 87 percent of Republicans.
Shockingly, 50 percent of women approved of Trump as president, 48 percent of blacks, 44 percent of Latinos, and 59 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds. It ages like fine wine.
Congress also provides benefits to Republican presidents who competed nationally and won the popular vote: Dwight Eisenhower won 39 states and the GOP took control of the chamber in 1952 after winning 22 places and won the Senate, Richard Nixon she could win 12 seats in the House of Representatives in 1972Ronald Reagan won 34 seats in the House of Representatives AND 16 places IN 1980 AND 1984 and respectively won the Senate both times and George W. Bush Down won 3 seats in 2004 AND he also won the Senate.
Which, let’s face it, presidents who don’t win a majority in Congress – or a enormous enough majority – won’t be able to accomplish much if they win the election anyway. Trump, who has served, cares about this prospect and has instead chosen to play it all. That’s clever.
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Robert Romano is vice president of public policy at the Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
“Donald Trump in New Jersey” photo by Dana Scavino.
