Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want or need the voters that his now vanquished Republican rival Nikki Haley accrued during her primary run. (Even after dropping out of the race, Haley consistently won an impressive percentage of primary votes.)
This Haley voting bloc was interpreted as a protest against Trump by Republicans whose brand of conservatism doesn’t blend with MAGA — also known Liz Cheney Republicans and Mitt Romney Republicans.
This week Trump was given an opportunity to pitch those Haley holdouts, but after saying “I’ll do what I have to do,” he skipped entreaties and instead proceeded to boast about how decisively he had beaten Haley.
“I beat her badly,” Trump said repeatedly, not exactly an outreach to her voters. (Even Haley’s own support for Trump doesn’t persuade the segment of these GOP voters whose Haley votes were cast essentially as anti-Trump votes.)
“Slap him around” https://t.co/X3ra2oftEE
— Sebastian Smith (@SebastianAFP) October 19, 2024
But at a rally in Michigan on Saturday, Trump seemed to reveal his plan to supplement his MAGA core without needing the politically active Haley primary voters. There are voters on sofas, Trump said, who could push him over the line if only they had the energy and necessary enthusiasm.
Here’s the plan: Addressing the women in his audience, the Republican presidential nominee told them to “get your fat husband off the couch. Get that fat pig off the couch. Tell him to go and vote for Trump.”