One of Donald Trump's former chiefs of staff, actually, technically he was just an acting
chief of staff, but Trump went through a lot of them.
Mulvaney has published an op-ed on the hill where he points out something that I've mentioned
many times in the last few weeks.
And that is this very simple fact.
Donald Trump has a math problem, and by math problem, Mulvaney says, he's not talking about
the economy or taxes, cuz he says, Trump is totally great on that.
Now there's a, there's a courthouse in Manhattan that'll disagree with you on that, but anyway,
you're still trying to kiss his butt while you also call him out, which is kind of cute.
But Mulvaney says, Trump's problem is this.
The problem is this.
He writes, the former president is really good at subtraction and division and really,
really lousy at addition .
This is not to say he's bad with numbers.
Having worked closely with Trump for several years on things like taxes and budgets, I
can assure you he is very good with them.
But I'm not talking about numbers, I'm talking about voters.
Trump has a knack for subtracting those.
And then Mulvaney goes on to explain how when John McCain died, Donald Trump was out there
attacking him.
And Mulvaney swears that he tried to talk some sense into Trump telling him that you
will not attract a single new voter by going out there.
And as he put it publicly flogging John McCain.
But he said Donald Trump didn't care because Trump's gonna be Trump.
And that is true.
And that's the same reason Donald Trump keeps whining about the 2020 election and spreading
those bogus conspiracy theories about it being stolen from him.
We know it's not true.
The reports tell us it's not true.
The studies tell us it's not true.
The research, all of it, blah, blah, blah, tells us it's not true.
But Trump does it because he thinks his base likes it and his base does.
The problem is it doesn't attract anyone that wasn't already a Trump supporter to his coalition,
and in fact has the opposite effect of turning off people who might be willing to join in.
This is what Mulvaney writes.
Later on, he said, Trump sees the math differently.
Of course, he sees dividing as a necessary precursor to conquering or put another way
he sees division as a way to victory.
And certainly that did seem to play a large role in his stunning victory in 2016, but
it didn't work for him in 2020 or in the house elections in 2018 or the Senate elections
of 2022.
Indeed, so far, 2016 looks to be the exception, not the rule.
And I think that's a good point.
I despise Mulvaney.
I despise everything this guy stands for, but credit where it's due.
He's right.
There is nothing that Donald Trump has done since winning
That 2016 electoral college vote that has attracted new people to his coalition.
Think about that for a minute.
He is not gaining new supporters.
And I know you're gonna say, but Fary got more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016.
He absolutely did.
But that's because you had Republicans who did sit out 2016 who voted for anybody with
an R next to their name to prevent Biden or any Democrat from becoming president.
Okay?
Those aren't new people who are die hard.
Hell yeah, I'm a vote for Trump.
Those are people who looked at the options, said, yeah, Trump's all right?
But a lot of those people, according to the polling data, have now fallen off.
So maybe, maybe it's more accurate to say that since 2020 he hasn't added any new people.
Maybe I'll amend that and say that.
But either way, heading into another presidential election, that's only what year and a half
away, you're not adding new people.
And not to mention the fact that you have to account for the fact that a lot of the
people who had previously voted for you are not gonna be able to vote in that next election.
You know, because a couple hundred of 'em are behind bars or hit with charges for their
involvement in the Capitol riot.
Not to mention the thousands upon thousands upon thousands who died from Covid, they're
not gonna be voting for you.
So I would think at this point, Donald Trump would take the advice of somebody like Mulvaney.
Clearly, Mulvaney still likes him.
Clearly he wants to give him this advice, but Donald Trump is not the kind of guy to
take advice if it's not his idea, he ain't gonna do it.
So keep on keeping on Donald.
The last thing I want is for you to grow your coalition, but it is rather hilarious to watch
you think that you know better than everybody else when everybody else who does this for
a living is telling you you are alienating more people than you're gaining.
And that is never a winning strategy
in elections.