Republican nominee Donald Trump looked cheerful playing golf at his New Jersey club one day earlier this month, then appeared bored in an afternoon news conference and dour during a reception with megadonor Miriam Adelson. He publicly mused about staying home during the Democratic National Convention, letting Vice President Kamala Harris hold the spotlight unchallenged.<\/p>\n
Several former aides who have known Trump for years said he always preferred to keep a lighter schedule in August, when his family visited Bedminster and he usually golfed almost every day.<\/p>\n
But aides did not want a situation where he was watching the convention every night, getting angry, and then just golfing all day and stewing, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions. Trump also had grown annoyed with the news coverage that depicted him as not working as hard as his opponent, one person who talked to him said.<\/p>\n
So the campaign launched back-to-back events over the past week, with the goal of counterprogramming the Democratic convention and securing news coverage, as other campaigns have often done, but also as a way to keep Trump busy.<\/p>\n
The candidate, though, often appeared reluctant. He frequently departed from the policy themes assigned to each day\u2019s event \u2014 an attempt to keep him focused on poll-tested messages over his pugnacious impulses \u2014 illustrating his continued struggle to find his footing in a changed race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stakes for Trump this election are arguably the highest they\u2019ve ever been. His criminal cases don\u2019t go away if he loses. Yet he seems to be phoning it in, running a remarkably low-energy, undisciplined campaign,\u201d said Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House spokeswoman who quit after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. \u201cFrom spending days off the campaign trail golfing to coming up with frankly weak nicknames like \u2018Kamabala,\u2019 it feels like he\u2019s lost his mojo.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Friday, though, Trump found a thumping audience in a packed 20,000-seat arena in Glendale, Ariz., the same one Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz filled a few weeks earlier. He polled the audience on the nickname he settled on for Harris (Comrade Kamala) after several false starts, while sarcastically deriding his advisers as \u201cmy geniuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has had a robust schedule since he first announced in November 2022,\u201d spokesman Steven Cheung said. \u201cHe spent the entire week discussing substantive policy, something that Kamala Harris refuses to do, or can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A person close to the campaign said Trump does not like reading issue-focused speeches that do not entertain his live audience. At an event Thursday at the southern border, the first words out of Trump\u2019s mouth took aim not at Harris\u2019s immigration policies but instead at the Democrats\u2019 decision to choose Harris as President Joe Biden\u2019s replacement at the top of the ticket.<\/p>\n
Cheung said that Trump \u201cis able to connect with voters through a wide range of events \u2014 from massive rallies to more policy-oriented events,\u201d always communicating \u201chis vision for America.\u201d<\/p>\n
While speaking to reporters at an economic-themed campaign event in Las Vegas on Friday, Trump falsely claimed that Harris did not mention the border and mocked Harris for repeatedly thanking the crowd before delivering her acceptance speech at the convention.<\/p>\n
Asked about the perception that the change in Democratic candidates had thrown him off, Trump responded: \u201cNo, I think we\u2019re doing great.\u201d He proceeded to complain about how \u201cunfair\u201d the change was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent $100 million fighting against a man that won in their party, and we had a debate and the debate was good for me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden they take him out and they put somebody new in that never got a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has publicly acknowledged his challenge in defining Harris, describing his goal as to portray her as a \u201ccommunist.\u201d His frustration with his advisers burst into public Wednesday when he mocked them for telling him to focus on politics instead of personal insults. He then polled the crowd on which they preferred and, when they predictably cheered louder for personal attacks, Trump joked, \u201cMy advisers are fired.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has not fired anyone, but he did bring in several former advisers into the campaign earlier this month, including 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former spokesman-turned-super PAC chief Taylor Budowich. On Thursday\u2019s border trip, Trump was accompanied by Stephen Miller, his White House speechwriter and immigration hard-liner who has rarely appeared at campaign events during this election cycle.<\/p>\n
Amid concerns about the campaign\u2019s focus, some Trump allies have begun trying to fix some problems. His friend Steve Witkoff, for example, helped broker a d\u00e9tente with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), whom Trump extensively attacked during a rally in Atlanta this month. On Thursday, Trump watched Kemp speak positively about him in a Fox News interview and responded with a conciliatory social media post.<\/p>\n
At the Glendale rally, hosted by the pro-Trump group Turning Point Action, Trump welcomed the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his independent presidential bid early on Friday and received a standing ovation from Trump\u2019s crowd. Trump is also hoping soon to roll out an endorsement from Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii.<\/p>\n
Trump tried to cut into Harris\u2019s acceptance speech by live-blogging his real-time reactions on Truth Social, responding with insults, deflections and non sequiturs. He then called in to both Fox News and Newsmax to continue his attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump immediately melted down and hasn\u2019t recovered since,\u201d Harris-Walz spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said. \u201cVoters are watching an unhinged and unserious man rant on Truth Social, rave on Fox News and hold bizarre rallies where he rambles for hours about his own problems and throws out strange and dangerous ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign logged mentions of his name during the Democratic convention, hoping to depict the Democratic Party as less focused on policy and more on being obsessed with him. Across hundreds of name-drops, DNC convention speakers described Trump as a narcissist, a criminal, a charlatan, a race-baiter and more in searing speeches suggesting he remains the unifying target of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
Most of his allies offered little defense of his character. There was no rapid response operation to respond to Democratic criticism that he inspired a riot at the U.S. Capitol, paid hush money to an adult film actress or was found liable for sexual abuse. Instead, surrogates and aides attacked Harris and Walz for not addressing Republican policy priorities and made a website portraying Harris\u2019s policy record in a negative light.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re focused on Trump rather than the border, inflation or public safety,\u201d Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes told reporters on Tuesday in Chicago. \u201cObviously their convention is about who they\u2019re running against and not what they\u2019re running for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining Hughes, with large posters behind them highlighting crimes in major cities, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) mocked the optimistic message of the convention, inside Trump\u2019s luxurious hotel here. \u201cJoy and vibes isn\u2019t going to put food on the table,\u201d he said. \u201cGo take your joy to the mullahs in Iran and see what happens to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the coming week, Trump will travel to Michigan, hold a town hall in La Crosse, Wis., a rally in Johnstown, Pa., and then to Washington for the Moms for Liberty summit. Harris and Walz, meanwhile, will spend Wednesday and Thursday campaigning together in a bus tour of Georgia, after which Harris will host a Thursday evening rally in the Savannah area.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Republican nominee Donald Trump looked cheerful playing golf at his New Jersey club one day earlier this month, then appeared bored in an afternoon news conference and dour during a reception with megadonor Miriam Adelson. He publicly mused about staying home during the Democratic National Convention, letting Vice President Kamala Harris hold the spotlight unchallenged. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8523","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\/8523","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=8523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}