Republican strategist Karl Rove criticized former President Trump for being “undisciplined,” with the election less than two weeks away — though, he separately praised the campaign.
“This is the most disciplined campaign his staff has run,” Rove told Fox News’s Bill Hemmer Thursday in an interview highlighted by Mediaite. “But he remains undisciplined.”
Rove, who served as deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, also knocked Trump for actions of this that have drawn criticism recently, such as remarks about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia and a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month where the GOP presidential nominee swayed to “39 minutes of dance music.”
After showing a clip from a recent rally in Georgia, Hemmer asked Rove to weigh in on the comments and the importance of a closing message.
“We’re going to close the borders first day, first hour, first minute. We’re going to close our borders. We’re going to take the criminals immediately. We will deport the criminals, we’re going to get them out fast,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re going to get them out fast. We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to get our energy prices down. We’re going to get our country back in order.”
“And I think we’re going to have, I think we’re going to have the four greatest years in the history of our country,” he added.
Rove responded, saying closing arguments are “very important” and “obviously the emphasis on being optimistic is important.”
The strategist, noting former president keeps “stepping” on his own message, then seemingly offered Trump some advice.
“In the next 12 days, you need to have him saying that kind of thing with a little bit more depth and substance to it and less on the sort of the riffing that has caused people to, you know, if he says something sort of wild, the media is going to cover the wild thing rather than the substantive thing and the substantive thing is what’s going to sell the voters,” Rove said.
The Hill has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
