One-time GOP insider David Frum, who worked as a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, predicted that Donald Trump's "pessimistic" presidential campaign will ultimately fail.
During a recent interview on The Rest is Politics podcast, Frum argued Trump's message to America was very similar to that of Hungarian President Victor Orban, who presented himself as a Bulwark against a frightening outside world.
"He's behaving as if America has not been a success," said Frum. "That has been the key... His famous line in his first inaugural address: 'The American dream is dead.' And it was pessimism, it was despair, sold in America! You're going to sell pessimism and despair in America?! That's not going to work!"
Host Rory Stewart went on to note that it did work for Trump in the sense that he was elected president in 2016 before losing in 2020 to President Joe Biden.
Frum countered that Trump never won the popular vote in either election and that he has been a persistent anchor around his party in midterm and special elections.
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"I don't think it works," Frum insisted. "I think it works for him -- he's been able to steal a lot of taxpayer money and he's enjoyed hobnobbing with his admired dictators all over the world."
Writing on Twitter, Frum elaborated further on why he believes the pessimistic approach only works in countries such as Hungary but not the U.S.
"I understand why Hungarians feel pessimism about the modern world," he argued. "Their leaders positioned them on the wrong side of two world wars, their territory was carved between their neighbors, they were afterward trapped behind the Iron Curtain, their talent driven into exile where nobody spoke Hungarian... but Americans have little in common with Hungary, despite Viktor Orban's efforts to convince/bribe the conservative world otherwise."
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