There is a lot of confidence on the right right not about the election. Confidence is good, confidence is helpful. But confidence can also be destructive if it is allowed to lead to complacency. As the 2024 race comes to a close, former President Donald Trump the home stretch where you want to be – it’s always better to be ahead than behind – but he has to resist the urge to celebrate early, coast or in any way spike the football on the 5-yard-line. It’s Donald Trump’s race to lose, and he could still lose it.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets more attention on social media, clicks on websites or general traffic than anything Donald Trump related. Doesn’t matter if it’s a conservative or liberal website, pro-Trump or anti-Trump post – if it is Trump related it will do well.
That’s why you’re about to see a million headlines, each dumber than the last, in the closing days of the election. This could be the last chance for a while, as rage fades either through victory or defeat, for these outlets to cash in on the Trump phenomenon.
“Trump is winning” or “Trump is going to win and here’s why” headlines are like printing money, as are ones screaming, “Trump’s latest gaffe will be his undoing” or “Trump just made the biggest mistake of the campaign.” We’ve seen both, we’ll see even more.
It doesn’t matter if you read them or not, just know you’re helping perpetuate the problem by clicking on it.
None of that matters, however, as long as the candidate does not start to believe the hype.
Drug dealers have a saying, “Never get high on your own supply.” Donald Trump would do himself a lot of good to not harp on any feelings he has about his campaign leading and fight like he’s 10 points down. Never let up until they beg for mercy, and don’t stop after they do that either.
The temptation to expand the board will be great, and Trump will be tempted to hold campaign events in states he will never win, like California and New York. I get the desire, but to indulge it would be stupid.
There are only a handful of states that will decide this race. Win them and win the election. Donald Trump should not set foot in any other state between now and November 5th for anything other than fundraisers, period. Anything else is a waste of time and resource, i.e.: money.
It was funny that Trump did events in New York City, and I hope he raised some money off them. But what he didn’t do was win any votes. He’s not going to win New York, city or state. Nor is he going to win New Jersey or Connecticut. If any of those states were up for grabs, this race would be so far gone as to make the whole thing a joke.
But it’s not a joke, it’s a close race. That may sound insane to you, as Kamala Harris is a singularly bad candidate with some of the worst ideas any human being has ever half-articulated, but reality is no based on your belief in it.
Donald Trump needs to focus on winning 270 electoral votes and nothing else. Don’t get goaded into whining about crowd size or calling Harris a moron, simply talk about how much groceries cost now compared to what groceries cost when he was President. Talk about what gas costs now compared to what gas cost when he was President, etc., etc. You name the issue, the comparison writes itself.
Over-confidence breeds contentment, which leads to people deciding to stay home and not vote because “It’s late, and Trump has this in the bag anyway.” That’s the enemy right now as much as the Democrats are.
Pundits and columnists making declarative statements are just as destructive. They don’t have any clue what the future holds of they’d be multiple lottery winners. What they do is if they declare the race to be won already, and then Trump wins it, they can pat themselves on the back for saying so early. If they declare the race to be won already and Trump loses, well, they can write a column explaining why it went wrong (had they only listened to me!!!) or ignore it completely.
There is no punishment in punditry for being wildly wrong, nor is there a professional downside to lying or discouraging voting through lies. There is no price to be paid by these people for any of it, and more. Everyone else gets punished because the better candidate lost.
Don’t listen to the used car salesmen, fight like you’re behind until you’ve got so much that they can’t cheat to win. And fight smart in places that matter. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you win by 1 or 1 million, the W is all that counts. Every move between now and November 5th needs to be with that and nothing else in mind.
It’s Trump’s race to lose, let’s do all we can to help make sure he doesn’t.