On CNN This Morning, Jonathan Kott, a DC lobbyist and former aide to senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), predicted that Trump supporters will give him six to eight months, but then "turn quickly" on him when the improvements in their lives he promised don't materialize.
That's soothing speculation for CNN's base, but Kott's powers of prognostication have a questionable track record. Less than two months before the 2024 election, here's what Kott, in a Fox News appearance, predicted:
"I think voters are still getting to know Kamala Harris. And she's introducing herself. And the more she does, the more they like her, and the more her poll numbers come up. I'd be worried if I was Donald Trump."
Contrary to Kott's conjecture, the more voters got to know Kamala, the less they liked her. And when it turned out she was for "they/them," and Trump was for you, it was game, set, and match.
Kott's no Nostradamus. If couldn't see just a few weeks into the future, don't bet the rent on his ability to see six to eight months ahead to a day when Trump fans will supposedly "turn quickly" against him! As the song says, he sounds like the King of Wishful Thinking.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
2/5/25
6:09 am ETKASIE HUNT: Jonathan Cott, you worked for Joe Manchin for many years, right? Interesting, you know, cuts his own figure, but also represented a state that really exemplifies the way our politics has changed, right, in the last 30 years, where it went from voting consistently for Democrats for years and years, and then ultimately became essentially the Trumpiest state in the union.
What of what Donald Trump has been doing here is kind of resonating, not with MAGA and the far right of the party that's very online and very politically engaged, but with regular people who are unhappy with their economic prospects and their lives.
I mean, what's he doing that's good, and what is he doing that is politically risky for him?
JONATHAN KOTT: All of it right now is good because they love action. And Donald Trump is very good at making voters and people believe he's doing something.
The executive orders he's signing, 90% of them mean absolutely nothing. They don't do anything. But he's showing them that he's doing something. And that's where Democrats faulted in the last four years. So people in West Virginia see the action, and they love it.
I think what's gonna happen is, when they start realizing their prices aren't going down, the government programs that a state like West Virginia relies on desperately are going away, you're gonna see a turn from him.
And they're gonna say, wait, you promised us all of these things, and now we're just getting this. And I would point out, not only tariffs were promised as a threat. Donald Trump told us they would lead us to this new gilded age of an economic boom. If they're so good, why aren't we implementing them? Why are we accepting that these sort of concessions that mean nothing and were already happening are good for the American economy? We were told throughout, tariff was the best word in the English language. Which is what he told his voters. And a lot of them believed if Donald Trump got in there, he was going to impose tariffs.
And there was going to be all this money flowing into our bank accounts. They're going to wait for that to happen. They'll give him six, eight months. But they'll turn quickly.
