Donald Trump's Advice to Supporters Could Spectacularly Backfire

Former President Donald Trump appeared to tell supporters on Monday that they "don't have to vote" in upcoming elections, in remarks seized upon by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' team.

Trump was speaking at an event in Derry, New Hampshire when he made reference to the 2020 presidential election and advised those in the crowd to watch other voters.

The former president has continued to make the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him through massive voter fraud and other irregularities, but advising supporters not to vote in the next election could backfire.

Trump is the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the next presidential election could see a repeat of close margins that occurred in key swing states in 2016 and 2020, meaning every vote will count.

"So we have to be careful. You gotta get out there and you got to watch those voters," Trump told supporters in New Hampshire.

"You don't have to vote; don't worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes, you gotta watch," the former president said.

Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis' presidential bid, shared a video clip of Trump's comments to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, writing: "Trump tells Republicans to focus on watching votes being counted on election night instead of getting out to vote."

That post was then shared by Bryan Griffin, DeSantis' press secretary, who directly criticized the former president.

"This is the type of talk that loses elections," Griffin wrote. "Meanwhile, @RonDeSantis has vowed to cede NO GROUND and organize in every state to maximize turnout for R voters AND compete head to head with the Dems to beat them at their own tactics (if they harvest, we will legally harvest.)"

DeSantis is also seeking the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination and has been seen as a strong potential rival to Trump, but the former president continues to lead in recent polls, while the Florida governor's campaign has struggled.

A Trump spokesperson told Insider on Monday about the former president's comment: "He was clearly talking about election integrity and making sure only legal votes are counted, and not letting what happened in 2020 happen again."

Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign via email for further comment.

President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by narrow margins in several key states, while Trump's path to the White House in 2016 involved very close victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In 2020, Biden won Michigan with 50.6 percent to Trump's 47.8 percent. He won Pennsylvania with 50 percent to the former president's 48.8 percent, while Biden picked up Wisconsin with 49.6 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 48.9 percent.