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You don’t need to be an expert in electoral politics to understand Rule One of any campaign: Candidates should pursue as many votes as possible. In a democracy, it’s common sense: The more votes a campaign has, the greater the chance of success.

With this in mind, Donald Trump appears to have a counterintuitive rhetorical habit. The New Republic noted:

On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.

As a clip from the show makes clear, the former president didn’t appear to be kidding: https://x.com/atrupar/status/1816482779581775943

If the phrasing sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. The day after last month’s presidential debate, for example, Trump held a rally in Virginia and told attendees, “We don’t need votes.”

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[-] norimee@lemmy.world 219 points 3 months ago

They don't need the votes because they have a plan in place to seize the power with undemocratic measures.

It's all he's been saying the last few weeks. If you listen to him, he says again and again, that they plan to abolish american democracy.

[-] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 55 points 3 months ago

ISTG if trump loses, incites another insurrection and we still don't put him jail I don't know what the point of it is anymore.

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 38 points 3 months ago

This is a common feeling with a lot of people. Not jailing rapists and other criminals just because their daddies were wealthy breaks down the social fabric. After all, if it's everyone for themselves, why shouldn't I steal from Walmart? Why should I not commit fraud against corps? Why should I not try and murder a presidential candidate?

The public not seeing that crimes against the social contract have consequences will be the actual thing that breaks society, not gay people loving each other.

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[-] n1ck_n4m3@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As one of the other posters mentioned (@Jordan117@lemmy.world) , it's exactly this. Johnson will refuse to certify the results of the election that put Democrats in the House, claiming some kind of bullshit irregularities with no proof, leaving the House controlled by facists. They'll then claim irregularities in the presidential election and force a contingent election where they have a 100% chance of electing Trump no matter what the public votes.

More people need to be made aware that this is 100% legal for them to do, and more people need to be aware that it is almost certainly what they will try. The only thing that can possibly stop it is significant awareness by the mass population of Americans and significant publicity (similar to how mass awareness of Project 2025 turned it into a poison pill).

EDIT: Oh look, they’ve already started making it super-legal in battleground states: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/06/georgia-local-election-boards-allowed-withhold-vote-certification

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[-] zcd@lemmy.ca 166 points 3 months ago

He's going to attack the capital. Again.

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 103 points 3 months ago

Attacking capital is great, it's attacking capitols I have a problem with

[-] zcd@lemmy.ca 59 points 3 months ago
[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Last time they only got in because Trump stopped the security forces from doing their job. This time it will be different.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

Get rekt, Jackson!

[-] Jordan117@lemmy.world 42 points 3 months ago

Attacking the capital was a last-ditch hail mary move, and only viable when he controlled the military.

They're going to use baseless conspiracies to try to fuck with the election certification enough (with an assist from the courts) to force a contingent election in the House, where they'll likely have a majority of state delegations.

[-] FoxyFerengi@lemm.ee 19 points 3 months ago

Well, that's terrifying

[-] rayyy@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

The whole Republicans house is in on it again. They have a multi-prong plan to seize the White House, from voter suppression to elector rigging, gerrymandering and outright violent intimidation. The coup will be much better planned this time.

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[-] solidgrue@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

He's going to attack the ~~capital~~ electoral process. Again.

This is why Democrats are saying the need to win overwhelmingly

[-] Bye@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

Way harder to do when you aren’t the sitting president

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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 126 points 3 months ago

One aspect of the fake elector scheme was to block the counting of rightfully assigned electoral college votes.

If they can successfully do that in enough states to prevent either candidate from getting 270, then it goes to the House of Representatives to select the president.

Each state gets one vote, and since there are only 19 states with Democratic controlled legislatures, that would guarantee a Trump win, no voting necessary.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 70 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They managed to shore this one up after Jan 6. Now, instead of just needing a single Representative and Senator to challenge a vote, you need 1/5 of each body.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022

So an improvement, no doubt Election Denialers have more schemes in mind though.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

Even at 1/5th of each body... 88 Congressmen and 20 Senators... The Republicans have that, 220 and 50.

[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 105 points 3 months ago

This article, combined with the Rolling Stone article just posted about 70+ election deniers running elections in critical states and counties, I have a strong feeling that Trump thinks he has already stolen the next election. The fix is in.

[-] aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world 78 points 3 months ago

This is it. His advisors have told him about this plan, and the orange idiot can’t keep his fucking yap shut about anything. He’s literally saying the quiet part out loud.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

Anything we can do to get the traitors out of these key positions?

[-] knightly@pawb.social 27 points 3 months ago

Nothing I'd want to suggest on a public forum..

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[-] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 94 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Because the fix is in with the Republican state legislatures and Republican Governors; and The DOJ / Supreme Court is gladly eating Trump’s soiled diapers with a fork and knife

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago

It's gonna be 2001 again unless Harris can really knock it out of the park

[-] cmoney@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

Only this time tRump owns the supreme Court

[-] Timii@biglemmowski.win 20 points 3 months ago

This is my take too. Whole country votes solidly blue but the SC crowns Trump king anyways.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

I don't think they can do that, but I don't doubt they'll try

[-] grue@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago

Trump has done literally hundreds of things he "can't" do and only one person has come anywhere close to stopping him.

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[-] zaph@sh.itjust.works 62 points 3 months ago

If there's one thing magats have right it's that Donnie tells it like he sees it. The reason he doesn't need votes is because he thinks he can steal the election. It's pretty simple when you don't look too deep and with him you never should.

[-] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

"We don't need the votes because we're going to call this election rigged and stolen just like the last one. We're going to challenge the legitimacy of Harris as a candidate and draw out the election results in court for years. Hopefully we'll get it to the supreme court where my lackies will nullify the results and declare me leader. At the same time, we'll call for more violence against our enemies and try to incite a full blown civil war because I'm a narcissistic man-child who can't accept that I could be wrong and lose."

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[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 37 points 3 months ago

Even if you are planning to cheat, you'd still want as many people voting for you as possible.

[-] invertedspear@lemm.ee 27 points 3 months ago

This implies he’s conniving. I don’t think he’s mentally fit enough anymore. Behind closed doors he worries about what will happen if he loses and they tell him, “you don’t need the votes, we’ll fix it if you don’t get them” and he’s just not with it enough to not brag about how smart and great he is. He lets things slip all the time. So now he’s made speeches saying people won’t have to vote, they’re going to fix it for him, etc. His team is likely freaking out that he keeps slipping, but it’s mixed in with so much bullshit rambling that it’s easy to play off. We absolutely need to be prepared for fuckery this fall.

[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago
[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 28 points 3 months ago

Sorry, I never watched Naruto

[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

President of Venezuela. Got 30% of the vote. Had his guys say he won anyways.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 13 points 3 months ago

Damn, I hope Naruto stops him

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[-] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

Because he wants to be a dictator, why is this a question?

[-] Bremmy@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 months ago

"Why does a fascist say fascist things??"

[-] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

Sounds like something a weird ass geriatric narcissist would say

[-] finley@lemm.ee 18 points 3 months ago

Because he wants to become a dictator for life

[-] retrospectology@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What little life he has left. I'll never understand how people get to that age and are still behaving like they're going to live forever. If someone has a forward-looking sense of duty that motivates them to make a better future for others I understand that, but Trump is clearly just in it for himself so I don't really understand the motivation if it's not just straight up denial of his own mortality.

The end is right around the corner for old Dumpy, you'd think he'd want to spend it sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas that he got other people to pay for.

[-] imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 12 points 3 months ago

Some Narcissists can't believe the world can go on without them, that death can even be a thing for them

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[-] Laereht@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

Maybe it's his feeble attempt at reverse psychology? It's probably something more nefarious but we must account for stupidity

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[-] regdog@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago
[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Probably a mixture of overconfidence and saying the quiet part out loud (i.e. he expects state and local leaders to "give him" the win). If you're in a swing state you really need to volunteer to watch the polls or help administer.

[-] Red_October@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Because he's counting on not having, or needing, the votes to win. His plan is to call the Election rigged, get Mike Johnson to refuse to certify the results, throw the election. Being "So confident" that he has more than enough votes to win, and then showing election results that have him way behind Harris, will just feed his narrative of a rigged election. He'll go on about how a disparity like that isn't possible, Johnson will parrot the same shit, opening a process that is much more unclear to certify a different result.

Trump is laying the groundwork for an election loss, sewing seeds of doubt that he could lose my any margin, much less a big one. When the results come in, the bigger the landslide against him, the louder his screeching that it was obviously rigged.

[-] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 months ago

He didn't care for the look of needing just 11,780 votes, so he doesn't need any.

[-] Freefall@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Overconfidence, ignorance, and the knowledge of the shady crap the GOP is doing behind the scenes to suppress votes and rig things. Those together with narcissism means he has to brag but can't reveal why he is so confident.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
468 points (97.8% liked)

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