Karl Rove is back. And he’s now pushing Donald Trump.
According to Politico, while Rove has said that Trump is a “petty man consumed by resentment and bitterness,” Rove’s super PAC is pitching itself as Trump’s best hope for the White House:
The apparent warming of the American Crossroads super PAC and its sister groups to Trump has become evident in its recent communications with donors, including a Tuesday afternoon “investor conference call,” according to multiple sources familiar with the outreach. The phone call — which featured Rove, Crossroads officials and a pollster — laid out swing state polling and electoral map analysis done by the group showing circumstances in which Trump could beat Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, in a general election, according to three sources briefed on the call.
Now, one of two things is true: either Rove is lying when he says he thinks Trump can’t win, or he’s lying when he says Trump can win. If it’s the former, Rove’s supposed anti-Trump showing means nothing – he’s willing to back the strong horse when the time comes to raise cash for his super PAC. If it’s the latter, he’s apparently selling a con to his donors, telling them that he can help defeat Hillary when he knows that’s essentially impossible.
My bet is the latter.
American Crossroads doesn’t support Trump. They think he’s a terrible candidate, in all likelihood. They’re pitching the notion that they can help him win because that’s how consultants operate: they tell donors that victory is within grasp if only they shell out a bit more money. They won’t stop the money train just because they think the candidate is hopeless.
But herein lies the problem: instead of using donor cash to build for the future if Trump ends up the nominee, the consultant class will just make money off of him. They’ll keep selling donors – mostly older folks who see the time horizon shrinking for victory – on the notion that one more check will make all the difference. Trump pledged to stop the consultant class, but there’s no reason to believe him: he’s now hiring all the top consultants.
Trump biggest lie is that he’ll change the way politics works. He won’t. He’ll just do what American Crossroads now does: he’ll sell people a bill of goods for the sake of self-aggrandizement.