The radical turn in the presidential election campaign has shaken former President Trump’s once disciplined campaign and forced the Republican candidate onto the defensive for the first time in months.
Trump easily swept through the Republican primaries, managed to turn even negative headlines about his legal troubles into campaign and fundraising material, and consistently led President Biden in the polls as Biden struggled to gain traction or even inspire his own base.
But that has changed in the brief time since Biden ended his candidacy and Vice President Harris lifted up of the ticket.
Harris has electrified the Democratic base and was able to significantly narrow the gap in the polls, while Trump provoked a backlash by attacking Harris for her race, her intelligence and her laughter.
“He’s like a poker player who’s beside himself after a losing hand. He can’t stop making mistakes because he’s angry and panicked. For weeks he’s bragged like he’s already won this election, and now he’s facing a huge enthusiasm gap while Democrats are so excited,” said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and founder of Authentic Campaigns.
“It’s easy to stay disciplined when your opponent’s campaign is in full swing,” Nellis said. “It’s harder when your opponent has all the momentum. I’ve seen that happen a thousand times.”
Trump’s 2024 campaign had largely avoided the kind of infighting and self-inflicted controversy that had often plagued his 2016 candidacy, his four-year term and his 2020 run. His campaign management, namely Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, won praise from Republicans when the former president won the primaries and was considered the favorite to defeat Biden in November.
But Trump caused a stir last week with his own comments, which Democrats interpreted as a sign of concern about a closer race.
Trump told a gathering of conservative Christians over the weekend that they would not have to vote in four years and urged them to cast their ballots in November. When given the opportunity to clarify what he meant on Monday, he offered little response to backlash from those who claimed he was implying there would be no more elections.
On Wednesday, Trump traveled to Chicago for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention, where he triggered a firestorm when he clashed with ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott and falsely questioned Harris’ biracial background.
“I didn’t know she was black until she accidentally became black a few years ago. And now she wants to be known as black,” Trump said.
The former president has also made pointed attacks on Harris’ intelligence in recent public appearances, claiming she had trouble passing the bar exam and repeatedly saying Harris is “not a smart person” in an interview with Fox Business Network that aired Friday.
In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump campaign, said race and gender “have nothing to do with why Kamala Harris is the most unpopular vice president in history.”
“President Trump is shining a spotlight on Kamala and her campaign as they try to rewrite history, from their disagreements on fracking to lies about her role as Biden’s failed border czar,” Leavitt said. “If they are so brazen as to lie to the American people about things that are so easily disproven, what else are they lying about?”
The campaign itself has concentrated to the attacks on Harris over immigration and the southern border, launching an attack bulletin this week describing the vice president as a “failed, weak, dangerous liberal.”
And Republicans have repeatedly emphasized that they have the issues on their side. Polls have shown that voters trust Trump on immigration and the economy, two issues that regularly rank at or near the top of polls of voter concerns.
The question is whether Trump can focus on the issues without resorting to personal attacks that remind independent and moderate voters why they may not want to support him.
“There’s no doubt he can do it,” said Sean Spicer, a former White House press secretary under Trump. “If you look at the last few election cycles, he’s approached the candidates his way in both the primaries and the general election, and for the most part it’s worked.”
“That’s the only thing people need to remember at the end of the day,” Spicer said. “He did it his way and was successful.”
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Trump addressed Harris’s about-face on a number of issues, including whether she would ban fracking, her advocacy for a national health care system and a reassessment of police funding.
But he also stressed that he had a strenuous time concentrating on his politics. At one point he joked that his speechwriters had “bored him to death” and asked the audience if they minded if he deviated from the script.
“I tend to be wrong about 75 percent of the time,” Trump joked.
