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Former President Donald Trump appears frustrated with the momentum of Kamala Harris’ campaign.
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Trump’s messages this week have included bragging about the size of his crowd and defending Biden.
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Some allies acknowledged the challenges of the campaign and the need for Trump to stay on message.
For what now seems like a fleeting moment this summer, the former President Donald Trump I felt like I was on top of the world.
He was leading the polls for the presidential elections. His opponent turned in perhaps the most disastrous debate performance in recent memory. The Supreme Court granted him some presidential immunity and a Florida judge threw your confidential documents case. He survived a literal assassination attempt.
But images of Trump smiling, surrounded by revelers wearing their own ear bandages, while Hulk Hogan ripping off his shirt in support of the former president almost seems like a distant memory.
Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, there has been an unmistakable enthusiasm surrounding her campaign, from record donations to closing gaps — and even leadership — in some swing state polls.
With the latest burst of momentum surrounding Harris choosing Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, the former president even seems a little shaken.
When contacted by Business Insider about reports that Trump is frustrated with the momentum of Harris’ campaign, Steven Chueng, Trump’s campaign spokesman, called it “fake news.”
“President Trump and his campaign team are doing everything necessary to win this election,” he said in an email, adding that the stakes were too high and “everyone knows they must row in unison in the same direction.” . It became more unified.”
Trump continues to deviate from the message
When President Joe Biden was his opponent, Trump seemed to have no problem staying on message: Biden is very old, look at the border, see what the prices are at the supermarket, etc.
But with Harris, Trump can’t seem to get the counter-message right, at times even appearing visibly frustrated at a press conference this week by the enthusiasm surrounding his campaign.
He couldn’t avoid bringing up race and gender — even falsely questioning Harris’ heritage while speaking at a conference for black journalists – despite allies urging him to focus on the issues.
He even started defending Biden.
In a Social Truth posted on Tuesday, he baselessly said the presidency was “stolen” from Biden by Harris and other Democrats.
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, he again asserted that Biden had “the right to run” but that Democrats “took him away.”
When a reporter asked Trump at the same press conference if he was concerned about the size of the crowds Harris was drawing, he responded with exasperation. “Ah, give me a break,” he said, accusing the press of ignoring the large crowds he attracted.
He even went off on a tangent, claiming that he drew a bigger crowd to the national mall on January 6, 2021, than Martin Luther King Jr. did in 1963, when he gave the famous “I Have A Dream” speech. (King had about 250,000 people. The Committee January 6 estimated that Trump had 53 thousand.)
Some Trump allies are also worried
It’s not just Trump who seems a little shaken by the way the electoral situation has changed, with some on the right losing confidence in the former president’s ability to win in November.
“At the convention, the game was up and the Democrats realized it,” said Richard Porter, a member of the Republican National Committee. The Washington Post. “It seemed like it was too good to be true, and it was.”
Five people close to the campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Post that Trump has relentlessly expressed frustration with the way the race is developing. “It’s unfair that I hit him and now I have to hit her too,” Trump recently told an ally, the outlet reported.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, even acknowledged to the Post that the campaign “hit some hurdles.”
Ben Shapiro, a right-wing pundit, said The New York Times that Trump needs to focus on attacking the Harris-Walz campaign and “stick to one simple point: You were better off in 2019 than you are in 2024.”
It’s impossible to say whether all the momentum behind Harris’ campaign will ultimately translate into a victory in November.
Meanwhile, Trump’s handling of the situation may not be helping his case.
Read the original article at Business Insider
