It's Time for Team Trump to Shift Strategy From Frontrunner to Presumptive Nominee

Those who support someone other than Donald Trump may take offense to this column, but that's not my intent. This is about strategy, not a call for anyone to stand down.

Political consultants have been proven very wrong time and again over the past few years. Perhaps that has always been the case, but I didn't really start talking to them until 2015. I fondly remember being told I was insane in September, 2016, on a call with several Republican consultants when I said I was quite sure Donald Trump was going to beat Hillary Clinton.

They laughed at me. They literally laughed at me.

But I've had my share of massive failures as well. While I'm not a political consultant (I offer my advice for free, partially because no politician would pay me for my amateur services), I have been held to a certain standard of accuracy with my predictions because I publish them for posterity. The biggest predictive mistake I ever made was declaring after the 2020 Iowa caucus that Joe Biden was done.

That experience taught me a powerful lesson. Nothing is set in stone until the fat lady sings, or something like that. The backdoor wranglings, donor class shenanigans, and most importantly the Deep State manipulations can make the seemingly impossible become a certainty.

The powers-that-be coerced Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to drop out of the 2020 primary race the week before Super Tuesday, which was absolutely required for the Democrats to nominate Biden and not Bernie Sanders. For those who don't recall, both Buttigieg and Klobuchar were ahead of Biden in delegates at the time and Klobuchar had her home state coming up. It made no sense for them to drop out unless the plan was to help Joe beat Bernie.

The powers-that-be made 85% of voters either skeptical of the Hunter Biden laptop three weeks before the 2020 election, or completely unaware of its existence. I'm not sure there's been a time in the digital age when something so shocking was as successfully covered up. In a poll conducted earlier this year (which I can't seem to find but I'm not imagining it), even a large percentage of Democrats said they wouldn't have voted for Biden if they knew about Hunter's laptop.

And yes, the power-that-be can take an insurmountable lead by the current GOP frontrunner and decimate it through lawfare, lies, and outright fraud. Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is certain to be the nominee as of August, 2023, hasn't been paying enough attention the last decade. The globalists learned their lesson following the 2016 election. They will never underestimate Trump or his base ever again. They will fire all weapons, pull every available string, and unleash every dirty trick in the book to destroy him.

Take all of that as you will. Trump's supporters can use it as a rallying cry to not get complacent despite his massive lead in the polls. His detractors can take it as a grain of hope. As Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber might say, "So you're telling me there's a chance."

It's Time for Trump to Switch Gears

It's important to understand that my advice to the Trump campaign to focus on Democrats is NOT because I think he's locked in. It behooves him to start acting like he's locked in for the nomination in order to make it so; the longer he lingers on attacking DeSantis, the more attention he gives him. When Trump puts all of his focus on beating the Democrats and stops paying attention to the Republican contenders, they'll start falling off.

The best time to do this is during or just after Wednesday's GOP debate. If I were advising him, I would make sure he at least hints to if not explicitly announces that he's putting his efforts going forward to beating the Democrats during his interview with Tucker Carlson.

The message after Wednesday should be, "Beat the Democrats." And that doesn't just mean Joe Biden. That means Gavin Newsom, Michelle Obama, and anyone else who gets rumored to be a Biden replacement. It also means going after Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Democrats on Capitol Hill who are vulnerable in 2024. Trump needs to establish that he's going to help down-ballot and the easiest way to do that is to start hitting Democrats in all relevant races.

The only Democrat he shouldn't go after is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Some of Trump's potential general election voters are fans of RFK Jr. Moreover, RFK Jr is focusing his attacks on Biden, not Republicans, so there's no need to draw him into a multifront battle. Let him go after Biden unabated.

If I were advising Team Trump, I would start laying out attacks through social media, emails, interviews, and in video messages to his base about multiple Democrats throughout the day, every day. And while I know there's pride involved, it behooves Trump to return to Twitter (I'm not calling it "X" until I have to). From there, he'll be able to use other Republicans as well as his base as massive force multipliers. Truth Social is an echo chamber. He's not reaching anyone there who needs convincing.

He could advance his campaign messaging, remain in the news cycle incessantly, and start truly unifying the party before the Iowa caucus if he puts all of his efforts toward highlighting the idiocy of Democrat Party leadership. His fundraising would go through the roof. But if he continues to focus on his nomination opponents, he's wasting valuable time. The nomination may not be locked up but it's time for him to start acting like it is.

Again, this is advice for Team Trump. By no means am I telling anyone who supports his GOP opponents to give up. I wouldn't want anyone telling me to give up on my preferred candidate if I still had hope and I would never tell anyone else to do it. This is about Trump's strategy, not a call for anyone else to stand down. Lord willing, we'll all come together as patriots sooner or later. I'm just hopeful that it's sooner and the fastest path to get their in my humble opinion is if Trump starts working in that direction immediately.