'Bringing a knife': GOP strategist says two Trump foes are taking fight to next level

Two of Donald Trump's political enemies are showing the Democrats how to "fight back," according to a conservative strategist Saturday.

Mike Madrid, who served as the Golden State's GOP political director before co-founding the group of current and former anti-Trump Republicans known as the Lincoln Project, has previously commented on Trump's political tactics.

This weekend, however, Madrid switched it up by talking about the Democrats.

Specifically, Madrid argued that polling proves two Democrats, California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, are making headway.

Madrid started by declaring, "Let me state it up front: Democrats are finally learning to fight fire with fire (as much as I hate that line) and it’s working. From TikTok campaigns that topple political dynasties to governors who troll presidents with their own tactics, the party is discovering that authenticity beats propriety in the attention economy."

He continued:

"Something remarkable happened in New York City this summer, and it wasn’t just another political upset. When 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani surged from single-digit polling to victory in the Democratic mayoral primary, defeating Andrew Cuomo by 12 points, he didn’t just win an election Mamdani rewrote the playbook on how Democrats can compete in the new media landscape."

The strategist added, "Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away, California Governor Gavin Newsom was 'breaking the internet' with something even more audacious: out-Trumping Trump at his own social media game, complete with ALL-CAPS posts, playground nicknames, and memes that would make a Gen Z staffer blush…except that they’re written by Gen Z staffers."

Going even further, Madrid said Democrats were "bringing a knife to a meme fight." He also argued that these are "concrete signs" that the Democratic party is waking up, and that the Democrats may take Trump's tactics to the next level.

"These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re concrete signs of a party finally waking up to a harsh reality: in the attention economy, being right isn’t enough. You have to be seen. Quantity of message has now become more important than quality and if you have both you can become an internet sensation," he wrote, adding, "Yes, Donald Trump broke the mold and figure it out first but if there's any truism I’ve learned in over thirty years in politics its that the first adopter of innovation in the politics business is rarely the one who fully capitalizes on it."

Read the full Substack piece here.