The Trump campaign and its faithful surrogates are pushing the narrative that if Trump is not the GOP presidential nominee, then the “will of the people” has been overturned and the amorphous Establishment has thumbed its nose at Trump’s supporters. It is a whopper of a claim that reveals a complete ignorance — most likely willful — designed to cover up the significant problems of Trump and his campaign apparatus.
Forgetting his inability to manage the basic work of accumulating delegates, his vague policies, his divisiveness, his complete lack of understanding of the issues and other shortcomings, Trump has failed to do something that’s utterly crucial in a modern campaign: build a real digital operation. This should raise alarm bells about his prospects come November.
While he is sometimes mistaken for digitally savvy due to his tweeting, in truth, Trump’s digital operation might as well be run by a teenage girl, as it is basically made up of late night tweets that spew insults and falsehoods (and has nothing else going on). This is a major reason that delegates should reject Donald Trump in Cleveland if there is a contested convention.
Whomever the Republican nominee is, they will be likely facing Hillary Clinton and the machine that helped Barack Obama win two terms in the White House. Were Trump to be the GOP nominee, it would be like a minor league baseball team facing a major league all star team.
Clinton handily crushes the Trump campaign digitally. Her digital game is vastly superior. She has been building an army of supporters through every digital platform conceivable. Clinton’s team, many of whom were involved in President Obama’s reelection effort, are replicating his 2012 digital juggernaut and evolving it for 2016. From social media to big data, Clinton is playing to win come November.
Trump, on the other hand, has made the mistake of not using digital tools. Sure, he posts news generating tweets on Twitter and videos on Instagram, but these are two platforms of many, and they are not being used to help voters vote or organize supporters. The Washington Post reported that the Trump campaign makes little-to-no use of the text messaging list it urges supporters to sign up for. In the rare instance that it does, Trump sends out updates that should ordinarily be targeted to a specific geographic region, but are sent to the entire list. For example, he texted his entire list a reminder to vote in the New York primary. Texas residents who received this must have been somewhat confused.
Trump’s digital operation is a complete bust so far. He has not embraced or made use of big data to improve his performance at the polls (had he, there is an argument to be made that he already would have clinched the 1,237 delegates required to become the GOP nominee). This is a problem for any modern presidential candidate. It is even worse for Trump, who claims that his competence and business acumen is one of the reasons he should be elected president.
Adding more to the concern is how comfortable Trump and his campaign seem to be with his digital inadequacy.
Millennials are not only the biggest generation in America, they are also the most digitally connected. Trump has record high unfavorability ratings among millennials, with some polls showing Clinton beating Trump 52-19 among voters under the age of 35. Having his rallies carried live by cable networks or running TV ads is not an effective way to reach millennials. Millennials might watch television, but when they do, the majority do so using streaming services and avoid advertisements.
Let’s put this in a context that Trump might understand: constructing buildings in New York. Many developers, Trump included, make their properties look attractive on the outside. However, when one looks at the materials and actual infrastructure, it is easy to find that it was is not as great as it claims to be. Many of the things that make apartment buildings great are absent. This actually makes these properties hold lower value than if they were properly built. Trump’s digital apparatus is no different. It looks impressive from afar (it has a large reach), but it avoids necessary details because he does not want to pay for them — i.e. there isn’t much under the hood.
Trump needs to speak to millennials where they congregate: online. Tweets late at night don’t check the box of being good at online campaign operations. Use of big data, targeted online advertising and building a digital community that supporters can use as an online campaign office to reach new voters are the hallmarks of a true digital game.
Trump’s lack of a digital organization is his surrendering of millennials, a crucial voting bloc, to Hillary Clinton.
Delegates to July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland will be asked to pick our party’s nominee. When they consider the candidates, they will need to take into account what each candidate offers the party as a whole. Trump’s digital campaign apparatus should give them significant pause. This is not the hallmark of a candidate who can or wants to win a general election. It is a sign of a bad candidate and campaign.
Evan Siegfried, a Republican strategist and commentator, is president of Somm Consulting.
