Former President Donald Trump told people attending a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Florida on Saturday that 40% of Americans will automatically vote Democrat because they are on welfare, echoing a remark Mitt Romney made when he ran for president in 2012.
“When you are Democrat, you start off essentially at 40% because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare,” Trump said at the retreat, according to The New York Times. “And don’t underestimate welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that — they cheat.”
Trump’s comments are similar to something Romney was caught on tape telling wealthy donors at a private fundraiser in 2012. The then-Republican presidential nominee said that because 47% of Americans don’t pay income tax, they would automatically vote for then-Democratic President Barack Obama.
An echo of Romney’s 47 percent comment from Trump to donors last night: “When you are Democrat, you start off essentially at 40 percent because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare….” 1/
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 5, 2024
“There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney said at the time in a video obtained by Mother Jones. “All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it — that that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. … These are people who pay no income tax.”
″[M]y job is not to worry about those people,” he continued. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
After Romney’s comments were made public, he released a political ad saying he cares about poor and middle-class families. In 2016, he told CNN that his remarks “didn’t come out right.” According to the book “Romney: A Reckoning,” a biography of the politician released last year, the 47% video drove him into a deep depression.
Trump’s remarks about Americans being on welfare were only a small part of his 75-minute speech at Saturday’s donor retreat. He spoke about his hush money trial and President Joe Biden’s administration being behind his several criminal indictments, referring to Biden’s administration as the Gestapo while also attacking the prosecutors involved in his cases.
