President Trump offered a poor reaction to Ed Gillespie’s defeat in Virginia governor’s race on Tuesday.
Tweeting his thoughts just prior to delivering a major speech in South Korea, the president remarked that,
Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for. Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2017
While it’s true that Gillespie was reluctant to endorse the president’s populism and to publicly campaign with him, what’s done is done, and Ralph Northam has won. In turn, Trump should have simply said something like “Ed Gillespie worked hard and ran a good race, I wish him the best. And don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, etc.”
The key here is that Trump is now a Republican president. That requires the former TV star to rise above the political fray and put the party’s interests first by advancing a message of optimism and unity. That message is as important in defeat as in victory. Instead, Trump’s tweet sold Gillespie down the river by suggesting that the GOP candidate was a failure from the start. Aside from being unnecessary, it makes Trump appear arrogant and rude.
Moreover, it’s also counter-productive for Trump’s own interests in that it will likely isolate those Republicans who remain unsure of him. They’ll look at Trump’s tweet and think, “the guy doesn’t care about the party, he only cares about himself.” And regardless of whether that assessment is accurate or not, fueling GOP dissatisfaction is not going to help Trump to unify Republicans around his legislative agenda.
Yes, Gillespie could have run a better campaign. But so should the president have sent out a better tweet.
