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There’s a video going around from Mar-a-Lago that shows former president Donald Trump completely bombing a speech in front of a disinterested and mostly empty crowd. It’s not easy to watch, and it’s not easy to bomb, but that’s neither here nor there. The real question is whether this is indicative of the future of Trump’s GOP.
In addition to this whole empty room video, which the Trump campaign has yet to comment on, there’s another thing flying around the polito-sphere that has all the liberals shaking with glee in their yoga pants. According to a recent analysis by the Financial Times, Trump is in trouble when it comes to his donor numbers.
It looks like he’s entering the election year with 200,000 fewer donors than he had four years ago. The story is that his campaign and his PACs had about 740,000 donors in the last stage of his race in 2020, and he had and only 516,000 in the second half of last year. Still, he pulled in about $189 million from his donors in all of last year. Not bad. Biden did better, though, with $202 million, from a smaller donor base.
A Trump campaign official cited in the FT reporting, who worked in the belly of the beast, in spinmaster headquarters itself, couldn’t even find a way to polish that turd. Which is rare, because let’s be honest, if the Trump campaign operation is good at something, it’s polishing turds. There’s no bad news so bad that it can’t be spun into something good. …Except this?! However, the unnamed official only worked on the 2020 campaign. Trump’s current operation would probably have (and probably will) some snarky remark that blames fake news or something. Dodge and defer! It’s a classic political tool for a reason.
There is one unfortunate key thing to remember here: Trump is not yet the nominee. Things are going to change if he snags the nomination. Trump’s war chest then Voltron-combines with the National GOP war chest and money probably won’t be as much of an issue. There could also be donors who are waiting for the primary to be over before they decide who to support.
Still, the official said that Trump needs to ramp things up on the small dollar side, and quickly. Those people need to start giving, and then give some more. Pony up, Trumpers, if you want your man to rule over the land once again, it’s time to pay the piper. Once he becomes the nominee, he’s going to need to work extra hard to “get those folks back into the fold.”
Republican strategist Eric Wilson has another hypothesis for what’s going on: Donor fatigue. He thinks people could just simply be tired of being asked to give money. This makes sense, as it seems like once you give these political figures your phone number, you get a text asking for money every seventeen minutes.
There’s also the issue of the economy. Things are getting more expensive for the average American, and they need every dollar they can get. Trump already has money! Use your money for something cool, like a sword or something. Those small donations, by the way, are very necessary for the Trump campaign. It doesn’t help that this is going to be the most expensive presidential campaign ever.
Trump also knows how to use liberal hate to his advantage. Part of the whole Trump thing is annoying liberals, and Trump is good at using all his convictions, which would be doom for literally anyone else, to his advantage. He sells T-shirts with his mugshot and “never surrender” on them, even though the mugshot was literally him surrendering.
Let’s get back to this video. It’s tough to watch, and while Trump is speaking, people are chatting and taking selfies. However, context is important. We don’t know who took the video, or why it’s being released. While it’s nice to relish the bad news, it’s not smart to count Trump out just yet. Back in 2016, the idea that he could win was preposterous. No one thought it was going to happen. If people let down their guard, Trump could very well do the thing that everyone doesn’t want to happen.