Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Rick Wilson

Democrats are holistically bad at politics. They don't know how to fight in the way Republicans do.

As much as progressives hate the Electoral College - and we can argue its flaws all day long - in 2020, the Electoral College is the only game in town. There's not going to be some miracle where it's not the rule book. The winner of the Electoral College is president. Doesn't matter how many popular votes you get.

Long sentence or short, everything Trump touches dies - even his most loyal henchman.

I'm going to keep correcting people, sometimes harshly, on the disparity between conservativism and Trumpism.

What really hits Trump is when you prove to people that Trump isn't for you - that Trump is about Trump.

America once used the words 'treason' and 'traitors' only in cases of actual betrayal of our nation's most vital secrets or interests.

I'm not afraid of what people say about me. I don't care if people say, 'You're an awful person.'

All the fantasies of Trump-Bannon nationalism require a vastly expanded state, with greater powers over the economy and society.

Trump would rather submerge himself in the lake of fire for a thousand years than talk about Russia again. It's the subject he can never avoid, never fully wash out.

Trump's 2016 effort could afford to be a shambolic circus; nothing was on the line. He never expected to win and so the rotating cast of campaign managers didn't really matter.

With every product, the delta between the brand and the reality determines its power over the minds of consumers, and with Trump, that delta is always broad. If Trump said it was the best, it was average. If he said something was the finest, it typically included a spray-painted gold veneer.

In a depressing twist, many members of my party and ideological persuasion have become advocates for Donald Trump on a scale that ranges from grudging to toadying, for a simple reason that seems to overwhelm all other factors: He attacks the media. Many are willing to forgive almost any sin because of it.

Trump will never, ever do the right or decent thing, and his consultants certainly won't. He will make outrageous, unsupported claims.

Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and others who raced to the microphones at the slightest hint of Obama overstepping the lines were damn quiet as Trump wildly colored outside the lines of any rational version of executive power.

Donald Trump's racism is of course an ongoing feature, not a bug.

As consequential and as deadly as the coronavirus pandemic has been, and will continue to be, the Trump media machine can't stop and won't stop its relentless propagandizing and historical revision. Trump is the hero.

Like all alchemists, Trump seeks to convert dross into gold, to toss a broth of his incompetence, denial, delay, deception, and failure into some supernatural alembic and extract political advantage.

Donald Trump's campaign is good at two things; hoovering up hundreds of millions of dollars from MAGA fans and spending them to move his poll numbers... nowhere.

Trump, like any good Stalinist, knows that one death is a tragedy but 100,000 is a statistic.

McConnell is the most talented majority leader in a generation. He has complete control of his caucus and understands and exploits their weaknesses, ambitions, and desires. In an impeachment trial where his members knew Trump's guilt was absolute and unequivocal, he bribed and browbeat them into submission.

I always advise my candidates, 'You better fight to the last bullet.'

I've written about this before, but the sad truth is this: There are only a handful of Trump true believers in the Senate. The rest are chugging a toxic slurry of cowardice, ambition, and opportunism that has led members of the upper house of a co-equal branch of government to relinquish their power and prerogatives.

The purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter. The mission of deterrence to make all parties in possession of nuclear weapons never, ever use them.

I was born in Florida. My first political campaign was as a field director for George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988.

For Donald Trump, any opposition, either personal, ideological, or political is treason. Anyone who stands in his path betrays the Great Leader. Anyone who fails to take the knee is a traitor.

Almost every culture has a cognitive bias for the tough guy, the alpha, the winner.

I think Trump is so dangerous because the people that he appeals to the most have this sense of despair and oppression that has become a central defining characteristic of their lives. And they feel like only he is their avatar; only he will fight for them; only he will keep the wolf from the proverbial door.

I believed that the donor class would cringe at the vast threat Donald Trump poses to the entire Republican Party, its brand, its prospects for expansion, and the nation.

If there's one thing no one will ever mistake Ted Cruz for, it's a charismatic cult leader. Cruz scans more as the accountant for the charismatic cult leader than the guy ladling out the Kool Aid.

Trump has learned over his long career as a lying liar who lies that none of his stories have to be true.

I'm not a squishy liberal Republican.

Stay away from national polls. They are always an illusion. They will always trick you into stupid political behavior.

Trump is a masterful con man, he's always trying to squeeze a little more juice out of his marks.

We were a family of incredible talkers, readers, arguers.

Barack Obama basically ran as a liberal suburban Republican.

If you think Barr's Justice Department will take a single step to confront Trump or his cronies with any kind of challenge, think again. His hyper-maximalist vision of executive power borders on the fetishistic.

I think that Republicans are going to deeply, fundamentally, and profoundly regret the way that they have - the way Trump has - framed the party with Hispanics.

If Trump claimed something was the most luxurious, it was likely a dank, low-end casino in Atlantic City.

Trump-era name-calling is just as tiresome and juvenile as it is nonsensical.

Even as an empiricist, I have to say that I believe in luck. I've seen it too many times in politics to let it pass by unnoticed.

No bully ever turns down a free shot when his posse pins back your arms.

Con artists specialize in finding what people need, and Trump knows the media craves variety, scandal, secrets, and he-said-she-said stories, even of the most dubious provenance.

No bully - and Trump is the apotheosis of every bully, ever - is ever satisfied with just one day's worth of your lunch money.

I will not vote for Hillary, and I will not vote for Trump. At the end of the day, I believe that President Clinton would be less damaging to the Republican Party than President Trump. Because five minutes after she's elected president, every bit of this anxiety in our party disappears instantly. We will go at the main enemy as we do.

Extinction isn't pretty, especially when you know it's coming and do nothing about it.

Donald Trump, like many cult leaders, understands the power his words will have over the minds and actions of his followers... but few cult leaders have a pet media infrastructure.

Trump 'accomplishments' are ephemeral, coincidental and accidental.

Be it China, the World Health Organization, the Bavarian Illuminati, or lizard shapeshifters, it's never Trump's responsibility. It's never Trump's fault.

It's not that I mind fighting with Trump's cheer squad... it's that it's so rarely a fair fight.

It's not a secret that Ted Cruz isn't my first choice for the Republican nomination for president. His smug Poindexter affect, his smarm, sanctimony, and general derpiness all grate on me. There's no doubt he's smart, but while smart is necessary, it's not necessarily sufficient.

Even the most liberal reporters I know have a sense of drive and curiosity about what the Clintons are hiding, because they know it's always something.

There are no points for civility or decency when it comes to prosecuting the campaign against Donald Trump.

I'm of the philosophy that you wage a campaign of full engagement and you use every tool in the toolbox.

The delta between who I am on Twitter and in real life is zero.

It's become a cliche to stare in mute horror at Donald Trump's endless stream of Twitter vomit, wondering what chthonic god finds pleasure in watching us writhe as Trump brings out the very worst in his followers and new levels of willful ignorance from Republicans determined to see no evil, no matter how in their face that evil is.

When authority is total, so too is the madness of the man who declares it, and the potential for abuse of power.

Every re-election campaign is a referendum on the incumbent. Every. Single. One.

Trump sees himself as the center of the media universe, the sun to which all eyes turn.

Donald Trump is an idiot and a moron and just a kook of the first order, but he is surrounded by a bunch of guys like me, who are ride-or-die for him. They don't love him ideologically, but they're stuck. And they're very smart. And they're very determined and they will do anything to win.

Part of the sales pitch for the Trump campaign is their unique, esoteric secret sauce based on a rabid cult following motivated by Facebook, Twitter, and other social media manipulation.