Two liberals believe they cracked Trump code on winning the presidency

NJ.com ^ | 1/18/25 | Lauren Sforza | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

[DallasBiff]

Two liberal pundits broke down what they believe could be President-elect Donald Trump’s code to winning the White House.

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes discussed the differences between the approaches of Republicans and Democrats when it comes to attention and money in politics. In a recent podcast episode titled “Democrats are Losing the War for Attention. Badly,” the two pundits theorized why Trump and the Republicans were so successful at garnering support in 2024.

Klein first suggested that Republicans value attention over money, while Democrats value the inverse.

“Money is very powerful when there’s not much attention, but Donald Trump doesn’t control Republican primaries with money. He controls him with attention. And I keep having to write about [Elon] Musk, and I keep seeing he’s the richest man in the world, but it’s actually not what matters about him right now. It’s just how he managed to get the attention and become the character and the wielder of all this attention,” he said on “The Ezra Klein Show.”

[FlingWingFlyer]

I hope somebody whips this little traitor’s ass on TV someday. Friggin’ Hogg.

[maddog55]

These are the type of idiots that would turn a table lamp on, it doesn’t work so they replace the light bulb it still doesn’t work so they try another light bulb, it doesn’t work so they order a new lamp on line, it arrives and they put it together, they remove the other lamp and noticed it wasn’t plugged in............... They plug in the new lamp and it works.

They never thought about the obvious.

[nickcarraway]

I don't think Democrats don't value attention. The media usually gives Democrats plenty of attention. Trump just got more by doing things the media will give him negative attention for.

The media thought by giving Trump endless attention and telling people he was bad, but they were still giving him attention.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yup

We should all tell them they’re 100% correct

[Liz]

Trump didn’t “just win.” He eviscerated any semblance of what was once known as the Democrat party. We reached a stunning national consensus -— we have not lived in anything resembling the nation that was envisioned by our Founders. That is about to be reversed, dramatically evidenced in 2024’s presidential election when a broad coalition voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.

<><>Dems lost the White House, the House, the Senate and the popular vote.
<><>Dems were rejected coast to coast,
<><>Republicans won majorities in 31 out of 50 states
<><>Trump’s big victories: Wy (72.3%), WVa (70.1%), N/Dk (67.5%), Idaho (66.8%), Ok (66.1%).

<><>Trump received more than 2.5 million votes than he did in 2020
<><>Trump gained ground in all 50 states
<><>Harris saw a decline of seven million votes from Biden’s total 2020.

<><>Texas boosted Trump’s total in the popular vote by a net of 900,000-plus votes
<><>Florida a competitive state saw a dramatic swing in Trump’s direction.
<><>Trump’s win reflects major shifts in South Fla and South Texas Latino voters.

<><>Dem Gov Whitmer outspent Repubs 4-to-1, but Repubs still made gains in state elections.
<><>Dems saw huge vote declines in blue states.
<><>NY votes sank by more than 800,000 from Biden’s 2020 total.

<><>Ohio Sen Sherrod Brown, working-class champion, toppled by a Republican
<><>Biden’s party is increasingly dominated by elite voters.
<><>Pa Democrat Sen Bob Casey lost, but refused to concede,
<><>Trump Won More Black Voters Than Any Republican in 48 Years—
<><>Trump won 101 Chicago precincts-—home to high numbers of city workers,
<><>Trump won 22% of the Chicago vote-—increased from 2020’s 16%

<><>Pelosi’s own deep-blue S/Francisco base saw a 7-point swing to Trump.
<><>President Trump won 312 of 538 electoral votes, including all seven battleground states.
<><>Georgia Republicans create a private-school vouchers program.
<><>Republican flips CA seat (district has 14 pt Dem registration advantage)
<><>Republicans control the Georgia General Assembly.
<><>Trump-backed Republican takes Alaska’s only House seat.

<><>NYC Asian precincts saw a 31% rightward shift to Trump.
<><>Pubbies popular vote lead is 4 million (1.4 mill by “Dem count”)
<><>late votes increase lead for Ca Republican House incumbent
<><>pitching for Harris, Obama is wrong about Trump, a-g-a-i-n.
<><>issues Trump ran on polled landslide majorities.

<><>Rural areas went foursquare for Trump
<><>In 2024, Trump won rural America by a record margin.
<><>Since 1980, no candidate has done better.
<><>Trump won 64% of rural voters according to exit polls.
<><>The previous best was 61% – set by Trump in 2016.
<><>Dems 6 points over Trump in NJ, is their closest surge in three decades.

<><>YouGov poll saw 57% aged 18-29 w/ favorable views of Trump, a 19 point increase.
<><>Trump gains among 18-29’ers account for 16% of the 2024 electorate.
<><>Young people gave Trump victory, a profound, historic generational realignment.

And there you have Democrats’ 2024 debt-ridden $2 billion collapse, up close.

[sauropod]

Ezra Klein & Chris Hayes. LOLOL!

[AnotherUnixGeek]

And its true that Musk gets attention not because he is rich, but because he has the gravitas of achievement.

Exactly. No one looks up to George Soros or Alex Soros or Bill Gates except the people they donate money to. And Musk is not cool because of his billions - he's cool because he builds interesting cars people can buy, does things with re-usable boosters that have never been done before and because he has a Tesla orbiting the Earth playing David Bowie. He swings for the fences and sometimes clears them. Men, especially, admire that.

[VTenigma]

They are still clueless and flailing.

[FreedomPoster]

Good bullet point summary.

[JohnEBoy]

Two liberals that I give credit to. I remember thinking a month or so before the election, where is Kamala’s money going? I live in Texas so I didn’t see a lot of her ads, but what I did see seemed so unpersuasive and inconsequential. And I suspected she was wasting money on “celebrities” only later to realize it was a lot more than anyone knew.

Trump, OTOH, would hold big rallies with a few celebrities ... but they weren’t the focus, his ideas were. And he ran TV ads but they were effective. But the eye-opener for me was when he went on “Joe Rogan Show” (whom I didn’t know much about) and later they said 35 million watched the podcast ... that blew my mind. Free advertising to 35 million people who were interested in what he had to say. And she didn’t even try to do it, even though it was clearly effective.

So he clearly understood the personal touch was way more effective. And whatever rule-of-thumb her campaign used ($100 per voter in TV ads) clearly did not work.

[Erik Latranyi]

Democrats spent far more than $1.2 billion. They spent tens of billions in tax dollars funneled to liberal groups and media for a massive advantage.

If DOGE continues to cut the primary funding source for the Democratic Party, do not be surprised if they fundraise less than $500 million in 2028.

[FreedomPoster]

<><>Harris saw a decline of seven million votes from Biden’s total 2020

There were massive grassroots election integrity efforts (poll workers and watchers, etc) supported by the RNC, after getting rid of Rona Romney McDaniel, that were a big part of that.

[monkeyshine]

Klein maybe cracked his head against the wall. Kamala got tons of attention in addition to having 3x more money to spend. All the media suddenly adored her. It was not attention per se, it was authentic messaging and persistency in the face of many great adversities. He won respect. Not attention.

[cnsmom]

Democrats have to hatch a plan by committee and follow an agreed upon playbook. They are about Group Think and polls for any decision. They have no common sense.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

1. Russia
2. Fascism

Or

1. Kamala
2. Democrats

[hinckley buzzard]

Ezra Klein and Chris Hayes are like idiot children who just got introduced to the internet and handed a device, now they think the invented the thing.

[hinckley buzzard]

Hey,,isn’t that a…salute?

[nicollo]

So why’d Trump lose in ‘20?

[Albion Wilde]

This article is crap. It suggests that the Trump team was motivated by getting attention; when in fact, people were paying attention to them because they had something to say, as opposed to the Kamala campaign.

The Trump team worked for reasonable compensation because they were fighting for a cause, unlike the graft and entitlement on the Kamala side.

[MV=PY]

Pretty funny. To them it’s always a problem with “messaging.”

They haven’t figured out that making up fake issues and repeating them through the media doesn’t work anymore.

It took Trump 8 years to kill the MSM, but he did it. The smart half of the population is wise to that now.