Donald Trump will enter the campaign this Wednesday (24) for an entirely new race and in a political landscape once again irrevocably changed by an unprecedented election year.
The former president’s rally in North Carolina is the first since President Joe Biden abruptly ended his re-election bid on Sunday, setting off a chain of events that appears destined to end with Trump facing off against Vice President Kamala Harris. in November.
Biden’s decision and Harris’ rise sent a rush of adrenaline through the Democratic Party and triggered a wave of new donations to compete with Trump’s own strengthened financial position. However, Trump and his campaign are working to reimagine a playbook and operation launched to take on an unpopular 81-year-old incumbent.
In a campaign already marked by extraordinary events – a significant civil trial against Trump, a felony conviction, one indictment dismissed and another delayed by a scandal in the Georgia prosecutor’s office, Biden’s debate performance and an assassination attempt on the former president – the latest twist has plunged the presidential race further into uncharted territory.
Trump spent Tuesday (23) reacting to the change in the political scenario. In a flurry of social media posts, the former president attacked his likely new opponent, lamented that Republicans were forced “to waste a lot of time and money” before the Democratic shift, suggested that the “Biden/Harris administration” was to blame for the assassination attempt on his life, criticized Democratic tributes to Biden (“He was pushed out of power like a dog,” the former president wrote) and criticized Fox News for paying attention to the Democratic governor of Minnesota, a state that Trump targets.
“They make me fight battles I shouldn’t fight!” Trump said about the network.
Trump later held a phone call with reporters — the first of its kind this cycle — during which he tested new lines of attack against Harris.
“As a result of your dangerously extreme immigration policies, the largest invasion in history is now happening at our southern border, and it’s getting worse, not better,” said Trump, who has spent the past 19 months attacking Biden across the border while rarely mentioning Harris.
The Democratic National Committee responded to the growing attacks on Harris on immigration by highlighting Trump’s effort to nullify a bipartisan immigration agreement earlier this year.
Trump’s team insists it was prepared for a change at the top of the Democratic ticket long before Biden officially dropped out, pointing to an internal memo from May that laid out scenarios that would result in an open convention and another Democrat as the nominee.
Trump’s senior advisers continue to suggest that a campaign against Harris focus largely on the same issues once used to criticize Biden: crime, immigration and inflation. As Biden’s second-in-command, Harris played a key role in shaping the administration’s approaches to these topics, they argue.
However, some close to Trump recognize the uncertainty caused by Harris’ candidacy, specifically what the new Democratic enthusiasm could mean for turnout in November.
The Trump campaign is already preparing for the new enthusiasm around Harris to generate a boost for her in the polls, as laid out in an expectations-setting memo Tuesday from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio. He predicted that Harris would begin to “gain or even lead over President Trump” in the polls, although he also insisted that the “honeymoon” period would end.
Trump’s team faces a race against the clock to nail down Harris before she can fully transform Biden’s election machine into her own campaign. While polls suggest that Harris is a recognizable figure, the Trump campaign remains convinced that the public doesn’t know much about her — referring to the gap as “name education.” The campaign plans to spend the next few weeks trying to fill that gap with as much negative information about Harris as possible.
Fabrizio, in his memo, previewed what the Trump campaign is expected to attack: Harris’ record in California as a prosecutor and state attorney general; his tie-breaking vote as vice president on the Reducing Inflation Act, a law Biden championed to increase investments to reverse climate change; and her response to the increased flow of immigrants at the border.
A source close to Trump also indicated that the campaign and its allies are planning to specifically highlight certain choices she made as San Francisco district attorney in an attempt to portray her as tolerant of violent criminals.
“So while public polls may change in the short term and she may consolidate the Democratic base a little more, Harris cannot change who she is or what she has done,” Fabrizio wrote.
The leading independent pro-Trump funding group, MAGA Inc., released a new 30-second commercial on Sunday, shared for the first time on social media, laying out another plan of attack. The ad says Harris “covered up Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline” and features a clip of her praising Biden’s performance as president. “Our president is in good shape, in good health, tireless, vibrant and I have no doubt about the strength of the work we have done,” Harris says in the clip.
The group, which has so far spent $77 million on ads to boost Trump, announced plans to run the ad in key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Trump’s appearance in Charlotte will provide his first opportunity to contrast himself with Harris before voters in a swing state. Four years ago, North Carolina produced Trump’s narrowest state victory margin and was expected to return as a key battleground in 2024. But it was left off the list of states that Biden’s campaign deemed viable after the debate from CNN.
Biden is the first US president to give up re-election in more than 5 decades
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