Trump Personally Lobbied Erick Erickson For 2020 Support in Multiple Phone Calls
Donald Trump in 2015: Erick Erickson was “fired like a dog.”
Donald Trump in 2019: Vote for me, Erick!
In what ranks as a pretty stunning flip-flop, the president — according to a report from the Daily Beast — has been personally lobbying Erickson, the former editor of the conservative site Red State, for his support in 2020.
The Beast reports that the president placed multiple calls to Erickson in an effort to get him on board the Trump train.
“He did most of the talking actually,” Erickson said to the Beast — describing their initial conversation in January as “surreal.”
The lobbying effort proved successful as Erickson authored a Feb. 11 blog post for The Resurgent, titled, “I’ll Be Voting for President Trump and Vice President Pence in 2020.
“I declared I would be ‘Never Trump,'” Erickson wrote. “A friend suggested I use a hashtag that had started circulating on Twitter, i.e #NeverTrump. The piece exploded and pushed me into a whirlwind of coverage. Despite lots of pressure, protestors literally on my front porch, and harassment directed towards my family, I did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. I voted third party.
“Some of my concerns about President Trump remain. I still struggle on the character issue and I understand Christian friends who would rather sit it out than get involved. But I also recognize that we cannot have the Trump Administration policies without President Trump and there is much to like.”
As Erickson made his reversal, so too did Trump. The president previously celebrated Erickson’s departure from Red State (which was a resignation, not a firing, as Trump stated.)
Wow, great news! I hear @EWErickson of Red State was fired like a dog. If you read his tweets, you’ll understand why. Just doesn’t have IT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2015
