Former Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway offered a recipe this week for Trump\u2019s struggling 2024 campaign: \u201cThe winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see: It\u2019s fewer insults, more insights and [a] policy contrast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow former Trump adviser Peter Navarro echoed that. \u201cWhen Trump attacks [Vice President Kamala] Harris personally rather than on policy, Harris\u2019s support among swing voters rises \u2014 particularly among women,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n
Trump is not listening.<\/p>\n
At a rally Wednesday in Asheville, N.C., Trump called Harris \u201ccrazy,\u201d \u201cstupid\u201d and a \u201clunatic,\u201d adding that \u201cshe\u2019s not smart, she\u2019s not intelligent.\u201d He repeatedly derided her laugh, including saying that it\u2019s \u201ccareer-threatening. That\u2019s a laugh of a person with some big problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the event was billed as a speech on economic policy, Trump made clear that wasn\u2019t really his preferred topic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to do a speech on the economy,\u201d Trump said, suggesting this wasn\u2019t his idea and adding: \u201cToday we\u2019re going to talk about one subject. And then we\u2019ll start going back to the other, because we sort of love that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He mused at another point: \u201cThey say it\u2019s the most important subject. I\u2019m not sure it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent days have featured a familiar sight: a coterie of Trump allies taking to broadcast outlets such as Fox News, seemingly to send a message to Trump \u2014 in the apparent belief that this is how you get through to the cable-news-junkie former president. They\u2019ve practically begged him to change it up. They\u2019ve sought to push him away from talk of crowd sizes and personal attacks on Harris, and toward policy.<\/p>\n
But whether because he refuses to or he can\u2019t, that message is going unheeded by the \u201caudience of one.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the contrast continues to loom large as Trump prepares to hold another news conference Thursday in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
The pleas have gone well beyond Conway and Navarro. For example:<\/p>\n
Former Trump primary opponent Nikki Haley said Trump is \u201cnot going to win\u201d by talking about things like crowd sizes or Harris\u2019s race and intelligence. (Trump has repeatedly suggested that Harris has hidden her Black identity, despite all the evidence to the contrary.)<\/span> Trump hasn\u2019t repeated his ridiculous claim Sunday that Harris\u2019s crowd in Detroit was \u201cA.I.\u2019d\u201d and \u201cnobody was there.\u201d But in both an event on X on Monday and speaking to reporters Wednesday, he played up his own crowd sizes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the biggest crowds ever in the history of politics,\u201d Trump said Wednesday. \u201cWe have crowds that nobody\u2019s ever seen before. And we continue to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has continued to attack Kemp, despite many in his party urging him to ease off a feud with the governor of such a vital swing state.<\/p>\n Despite GOP concerns over his previous attack on Harris\u2019s racial identity, Trump re-upped that attack in a news conference last week.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very disrespectful to both, really,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s Indian or Black, I think it\u2019s very disrespectful to both.\u201d<\/p>\n And despite many Republicans and Trump allies urging him to focus more intently on Harris\u2019s record, Trump has generally spoken only in platitudes about how Harris is bad, without keying on specific policies she advocated \u2014 including liberal ones she took during her 2020 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n Indeed, Trump often appears more focused on his former opponent, President Joe Biden, than Harris. A transcript of Trump\u2019s X event Monday with Elon Musk shows Trump referenced Biden by name 21 times and Harris by name only eight times.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s campaign has thus far shrugged off the calls for a change in approach. Top adviser Chris LaCivita on Fox News on Wednesday avoided directly responding to Haley\u2019s criticism when prompted. But he suggested that the problem was more about the media not covering it when Trump does talk about policy.<\/p>\n GOP vice-presidential nominee JD Vance was more defiant Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the people who say that Donald Trump should do something different, they had an opportunity to make Donald Trump do something different by challenging him over three separate primaries \u2014 every single one of which he won,\u201d Vance told reporters. \u201cSo I think that Donald Trump has earned the right to run the campaign that he wants to run.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance insisted that he and Trump are talking about policy, but he added that \u201cwe\u2019d much rather have an American president who is who he is\u201d and \u201cwho\u2019s willing to offend us\u201d and \u201clets the American people see exactly who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of truth in those statements for the Republican Party. Trump is indeed who he is, and he\u2019s demonstrated very limited ability or willingness to adjust his approach. And Republicans have clearly made the decision to own that Trump, for better or worse.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just that it\u2019s mostly been for worse throughout Trump\u2019s time in politics, and the 2024 campaign isn\u2019t looking great either.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Former Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway offered a recipe this week for Trump\u2019s struggling 2024 campaign: \u201cThe winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see: It\u2019s fewer insults, more insights and [a] policy contrast.\u201d Fellow former Trump adviser Peter Navarro echoed that. \u201cWhen Trump attacks [Vice President Kamala] Harris personally rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnother former Trump primary opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, called for a reset and a \u201cstronger focus on policy.\u201d<\/span>
\nFormer House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) urged Trump to \u201cstop questioning the size of her crowds\u201d and focus on Harris\u2019s record.<\/span>
\nFox News host Sean Hannity said \u201cwe don\u2019t have time for\u201d Trump\u2019s attacks on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).<\/span>
\nFormer Fox News host Megyn Kelly said of Trump\u2019s focus on crowd sizes: \u201cSo stupid. Just focus on the damn border.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n