'Bonkers' new Trump campaign strategy 'sounds like a grift': analysis

Washington Monthly's Bill Scher has found himself flabbergasted that former President Donald Trump's campaign is partnering with Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Action to help it get out the vote during the 2024 presidential election.

In his latest column, Scher expresses astonishment that Trump would entrust such crucial operations to a group that has shown no signs that it can turn out voters in elections.

In fact, Scher goes so far as to call the plan "bonkers."

As evidence, Scher points to Turning Point's efforts on behalf of failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in the 2022 elections.

"In the Arizona gubernatorial race, Turning Point’s preferred candidate, Kari Lake, led the Democratic nominee, Katie Hobbs, by 2.4 percentage points in the final FiveThirtyEight poll average," he notes. "Yet Hobbs won by a 0.7 percentage point margin. Underperforming the polls by 3 points indicates that Lake and her Turning Point comrades got beat on the ground."

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He then documents how many Republican insiders are suspicious of Kirk's efforts, as many suspect the GOTV campaign is yet another way to funnel money into his pockets regardless of the actual results.

“Any donor who thinks an organization needs $108 million for a three-state grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign is being taken advantage of," right-wing activist Erick Erickson said last year. "It sounds like a grift.”

Also among the skeptics was former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who reportedly gave Kirk's plan the cold shoulder but who has since been ousted from her job.

Scher cites a quote from one Trump ally who believes that Kirk wanted McDaniel out so that he could start hoovering up RNC donors' money.

“This is why he was trying to get rid of Ronna,” the Trump ally claimed. “He shouldn’t make it sound like, ‘Oh, we’re tired of losing. We don’t have an early vote program.’ He should have just said, ‘Listen, he who controls the RNC controls millions of dollars and I want to get my hands on them.’ I mean, that would have been a more honest grift.”