After Nikki Haley dropped out of the election, she has kept a somewhat lower profile.
Now that the dust has settled, she has decided to kick it back up by offering some advice to Donald Trump on his campaign.
Talking Points…
- Trump complaints about Harris
- Haley offers Trump some advice
- Analysis
Donald Trump is obsessed with the size of his rally crowds. He often overstates them while downplaying his opponents' rally crowds. This was a focus point of Trump's during the 2020 election, and we all saw how that played out, but Trump is not giving up on this line of attack.
During a recent appearance, the conspiracy sleuths claimed that the crowd welcoming Harris at the airport hanger was photoshopped in. Trump also claimed the same for the crowd at the actual rally. This was based on someone online showing no reflection on Air Force Two, which Trump bought hook, line, and sinker. Trump posted:
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane.
“She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”
There were live videos of the arrival and the rally, and the crowds were really there, yet Trump pushed this narrative. To be honest, I was shocked to see the support Harris is receiving, with one rally appearing more like a Taylor Swift concert than a political event. At the time, I thought it was a mistake for Trump to attack this because it was only drawing more attention to Harris and making Trump sound whiney, and I was not alone.
Now, I realize most people reading this are not fans of Nikki Haley, but she was dead right in offering this advice to Trump. Whining about crowd sizes is just silly because, above all else, it is insignificant in terms of the election and the real issues. If rally size were what mattered, then Trump would still be in the White House.
Haley touched on this subject during a recent interview, suggesting:
"You can't win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they're smart.
"It's not about her. It's about the American people. Talk to them and let them know you need their vote."
Haley also suggested that Republicans stop whining about Harris being the nominee and start attacking her on policy. She stated:
"We knew it was going to be her. She's not going to give an interview. They're going to hold out as long as they can. That's their right. They can do it. That doesn't mean we can't talk about what she believes in. And we should be getting out there and doing that.
"I take her at her word that she thinks that illegal immigrants should be able to vote and be given driver's licenses. I take her at her word that she wants to ban fracking and kill a bunch of U.S. jobs. Take her at her word."
You guys already know how I feel about Harris being the nominee, but that is only because of how all this went down. I do actually agree with Haley on this, but I would take a different approach. Republicans in office and the Trump campaign should be focused on policy, hammering Democrats and the record of the Biden administration to shred Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. At the same time, the RNC should be taking out ads showing that the Democrat Party did something unprecedented in removing Biden and placing Harris, as well as challenging the nomination in court.
This would allow Trump to say he is concentrating on the American people and the issues, and what the RNC is doing has nothing to do with his campaign. He is preparing for an election against Harris, and that is all he knows. To that point, stop obsessing over rally sizes and concentrate on the issues. What Trump is doing now is not working, and this is reflected in the polls. If he doesn’t change, he is doomed to repeat what happened in 2020.
