Chief Adviser and Member of the Board of Directors at Uber David Plouffe speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016 at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on May 10. | Getty Plouffe: Trump is 'lazy'

Donald Trump needs to stop being “lazy” if he wants to have a good general-election campaign, David Plouffe says.

Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and political strategist, spoke with Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer — also former White House officials — on their podcast “Keepin’ It 1600,” at length about Trump’s chances against Hillary Clinton in November.


Trump’s decision to give a set of remarks — with the aid of a teleprompter — last week is just one example of how the presumptive GOP nominee is lazy and unwilling to go about the traditional means of campaigning, Plouffe said.

“It’s so offensive as a practitioner,” he said. “Get on your plane and go to Ohio. It’s not that complicated. … I think he’s actually quite lazy. He’s lazy.”

Plouffe, now an adviser at Uber, went on to say that Trump is “not doing basic things” that are expected, or required, of a major party’s nominee, such as explaining his policies in clear talking points and drawing distinct contrasts with his opponent.

He said Trump won’t have success by assuming that the general election will be anything like the primaries, or by ignoring the importance of data models and television advertising.

“It seems like he’s just stuck in the view that everything he did in the primary will work [in the general],” he said. “I think the evidence is that it’s not.”

Favreau and Pfeiffer asked Plouffe about his concerns about Clinton, now that she’s the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Asked about how concerned he is that Bernie Sanders’ supporters would end up backing Clinton, Plouffe said he thinks that issue is “probably the most overcovered story in politics.”

“I mean, we’re going to have Democratic unity,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that the Clinton campaign won’t have to be smart about that — there’s people who voted for Sanders, organized for Sanders, and they’re going to have to go out and try and earn their trust.”

Plouffe said he believes Clinton could capture more than 90 percent of the Democratic vote in the general — but generating enthusiasm remains one of her biggest challenges.

“She needs intensity and enthusiasm, but I think compared to the Republicans, we couldn’t be more unified,” he said. “That shit show is tearing apart by the day.”

