'Not president anymore': Haberman says Trump insiders stunned they can't get Republicans to 'show up for him'
Donald Trump is headed to Columbia, South Carolina this week to jump-start his 2024 presidential bid and, with reports that it is off to a rough start. The New York Times Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN to report that his close advisers are taken aback by how bad things are going.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that Trump's close allies were working the phones trying to round up attendees in South Carolina and finding no takers.
Sitting down with "CNN This Morning" host Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow, Haberman noted that Trump seems to share the same sense of apathy Republicans are about his third presidential run.
Addressing the fact that the former president rarely ventures out of Mar-a-Lago, she explained, "Look, he has not been running what one would consider a rigorous effort so far. I don't know how much is his lack of desire or how much is that his fund-raising might be struggling but he is going to plant a flag, especially because other candidates this is the period where they're looking to get in."
"I think they are also finding, his team, that people are not swelling around him in the Republican Party in these states the way they had believed," she added. "Now he still has supporters and still has his operation, it's pretty small. I think they thought they would be able to get all of these people to just show up for him."
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"He's over and over and over learning the lesson he is not president anymore and for a lot in the Republican Party someone they want to be past," she elaborated.
"He's trying to create momentum around himself," she told the hosts. "I remember him campaigning right before the primary in New Hampshire the beginning of February, end of January 2016 and him complaining at an event how long his commute was to go back to Manchester. So this is not somebody who does retail campaigning especially well. I don't think we'll see him do it."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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