Republican campaign guru tells Trump: Your messaging stinks

Karl Rove, a Republican political strategist who famously advised President George W. Bush, supports President Donald Trump’s new war against Iran — but is less impressed with Trump’s messaging.

Praising Operation Epic Fury as “a historic act,” Rove argued for The Wall Street Journal that “the effort has showcased military and intelligence brilliance and gutsy leadership. It began with the American president and the Israeli prime minister. It has continued with leaders of half a dozen Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean countries.”

Rove added, however, that “despite all this, the White House must deal with two stark realities: No one knows how this will end, and the war against the mullahs in Tehran isn’t popular at home.” The former Bush adviser pointed out that on average surveys find 41.3 percent of America supporting the way while 48.7 percent oppose it.

“No rally-’round-the-flag effect there,” Rove said. “Support for the president and his policy didn’t get a patriotic boost when the shooting started. Not even as U.S. planes, warships and fighters successfully pounded the leaders of a country that has chanted ‘Death to America’ for some 47 years and backed that threat by spending the country’s oil riches to support terrorism across the globe.”

To solve this messaging problem, Rove urged Trump to “spend more time explaining its actions in Iran and why they’re important to Americans’ interests. That could cause some who hold wish-washy opinions to move into the president’s corner.”

He concluded, “This can’t be just left to the eight-minute Truth Social video the president posted early Saturday morning or to a few brief calls by him to journalists.”

This is not Rove’s first recent criticism of the Trump White House. Last month, Rove argued that the State of the Union message failed to do anything besides energize the MAGA base, which imperils his chances in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Almost everything the president said energized his MAGA hard core. But they aren’t enough to stave off a shellacking this fall,” Rove told The Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Trump should have fixated more on those of his 2024 voters who have since become disenchanted: Those represented by his approval rating’s almost 8-point slide in the RealClearPolitics average since re-entering office.”

He continued, “That isn’t a large slice of the electorate, but those swing voters will decide which party controls Congress for Mr. Trump’s final two years in the White House.”

He similarly criticized Trump for focusing on what he described as “frivolities” instead of issues of immediate concern to ordinary Americans.

"Democrats want this election to be a referendum on Mr. Trump. So they’re happy for him to fill his days attacking the Super Bowl halftime show, posting a map showing Greenland, Canada and Venezuela as American possessions or trashing a U.S. Olympic athlete on Truth Social," Rove wrote. "Every moment he spends on such frivolities is a missed opportunity to advance his cause."

He also felt that Trump failed to connect with ordinary voters during a speech in Iowa last month.

“Mr. Trump made two mistakes,” Rove argued. “The first was straying from the subject for almost half his speech. Victories and stolen elections. Immigration. Introducing politicians on the stage. Attacking his predecessor for multiple sins. Lots of different foreign issues. He went everywhere — and therefore nowhere.”

He added that Trump’s second mistake was having a “triumphal tone.”

“He congratulated himself on ‘the greatest first year of any administration in American history,’” Rove said. “The ‘economy is booming,’ he said. It’s been ‘the best first year of any president ever maybe.’ All this left the impression that the nation’s economic challenges are solved.”

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