Donald Trump ‘s Presidential campaign is set to focus on the border and the economy – the two issues he believes Kamala Harris is weakest on, insiders claim. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Republican nominee is planning to ramp up his aggressive campaign to pour cold water on Harris’ sustained momentum.
He previewed the attacks he’ll likely go with on these topics during Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), during which he commented live over on Truth Social. ‘Kamala’s biography won’t lower prices at the grocery store, or at the pump!’ he wrote, referencing her stories about her immigrant mother and her work as a prosecutor . ‘She said, “chart a new way forward,” but she’s had three and a half years, and has done nothing but HARM!’ In all caps, he also threw her record as the ‘border czar’ in her face, something Democrats have been trying to protect her from ever since it became clear she’d be the candidate instead of Joe Biden.
Biden dropping out of the race seems to have shocked what was a sluggish campaign trail for both candidates. The race has become what Americans typically expect this deep into presidential election years: daily rallies and constant media appearances. Trump advisers say he will be much more active on the stump going forward, the WSJ reported. He is set address a National Guard conference in Detroit on Monday. He’ll be in Michigan and Wisconsin all day Thursday and holding events. Then, to cap off upcoming week, he’ll fly over to Pennsylvania for a rally.
Against Trump’s instincts, advisers have set up smaller events for him so he can focus on the issues at hand and actively appeal to undecided voters and independents rather than the roaring MAGA fans who go to rallies and are already with him. On Thursday, for instance, he held a more muted event in front of the border wall in Cochise County, Arizona, where he said Biden and Harris squandered taxpayer money by letting materials for wall construction go to waste. At the event, he invited relatives of Americans killed by illegal immigrants and allowed them to tell their devastating stories that also professed their support for him and the dangers of Harris’ border policy.
‘We will seal the border, stop the invasion, and launch the largest deportation effort in American history,’ Trump said after the families spoke. Trump is also bringing back his campaign manager from his first run in 2016, Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski will reportedly act as another sounding board for Trump, while also making loads of TV appearances himself in the coming weeks. Taylor Budowich is another key, if lesser known, ally jumping on board. He joins the campaign after running the MAGA PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC, and is said to have a strong rapport with Trump. Insiders say he’s good at giving advice, expecting his counsel to be crucial in keeping Trump on message.
That’s especially important now that Biden is out of the race. Out of habit, Trump continued attacking the current president well after he dropped out, but now he’s looking for attack lines that work well against Harris specifically. One retort that he seems to have settled on is that the vice president is stealing his policies. Trump vowed to abolish the tax on tips for service workers during a June 9 rally in Las Vegas, even pitching the idea to congressional Republicans days later . Harris made the same promise two weeks ago , prompting many on the right to call her out for jacking one of Trump’s popular olive branches to the working class.
Trump had a repeat rally Friday in Las Vegas, where this idea could really appeal to casino workers in Nevada who rely on tips to make a living. ‘She’s a copycat,’ Trump said on stage. Beyond new attacks and smaller, more issue-focused events, Trump and his surrogates plan to make inroads with voters through more nontraditional avenues. This means expect Trump to do things similar to his interview with Elon Musk on X or his podcast sit-down with comedian Theo Von last week. This strategy, campaign officials are saying, is geared toward getting through to more undecided voters – mainly younger men – who are often likelier to listen to alternative media sources.
The crème de le crème of the podcast world would obviously be Joe Rogan, who said in 2022 he turned down multiple requests from Trump to appear on his Spotify-hosted program. Trump has never publicly responded to this claim but did attack Rogan this month for saying positive things about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
The Trump campaign also wants to book surrogates on podcasts geared more toward black male audiences, such as ‘Earn Your Leisure,’ ‘Market Mondays’ and others, the WSJ reported. Trump and his allies have reportedly shown frustration about the upward trajectory of the Harris campaign but expect this momentum to level off.
Most polling aggregators have Harris up nationally by 1.5 to 3.6 points, which is well within the margin of error for most individual polls. At a North Carolina event on Wednesday billed as an address on national security issues , Trump outsourced his campaign strategizing to his own supporters. While lamenting over how former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle levied ‘very nasty’ attacks at him during the DNC, he asked rallygoers whether he should use personal attacks or not. The crowd overwhelmingly indicated that he should. ‘My advisers are fired,’ Trump joked. ‘I would rather keep it on policy. Sometimes it’s hard when you’re attacked on all ends.’
