Republicans Panic As The Rust Belt Abandons Trump

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:26 am

Republicans are in a total panic because the Rust Belt is fleeing from Donald Trump and the president is doing nothing to get them back.

The Rust Belt Could Be Gone, and Trump Has No Clue

Politico reported:

But several of the GOP contributors left the two-day retreat in Washington dissatisfied, dogged by essentially the same concern: The president doesn’t really have a strategy to win reelection.

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They are chiefly worried about how he intends to prevail again in the Rust Belt states that voted for Trump in 2016, but where Democrats performed strongly in last year’s midterms. But there are also concerns about whether the president’s fundraising apparatus is up to the task, and whether Trump will trample on any strategy or message the campaign does develop, as he frequently does.

The math is simple. If Trump loses the three Rust Belt states that he carried by 77,000 votes, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, he will lose the 2020 election. Trump’s margin of error is zero. Republicans got crushed in these states in the midterm election, and there is no sign of a GOP rebound coming in 2020. Trump needs a new strategy, but he is doing nothing.

Trump’s 2016 Strategy Won’t Work In 2020

Trump did have a strategy in 2016 and it was to demonize and make the election all about Hillary Clinton. Trump had help from his pals in Russia and was able to turn an election that should have been about him into an election where the media coverage obsessed over Clinton’s emails and ignored Trump’s real crimes.

Donald Trump is planning on using the same strategy in 2020. It is why Trump is ranting about socialism in most of his public remarks. Trump is going to make the election all about his Russia backed “democracy” versus the “socialist threat.”

The strategy won’t work especially if Democrats nominate someone like former vice president Joe Biden, whose strong appeal in the Rust Belt could be the final nail in Trump’s presidency.

Republican panic has been growing for more than a year

Republicans see the writing on the wall. Trump is looking like a loser in 2020. However, there isn’t much that they can do about it. Trump has remade the RNC in his own image. He is trying to shut down any primary challenge before it can happen, and the president is ignoring warnings from his own party that disaster is coming.
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