The Trump Campaign and the 2016 Democratic National Convention: a personal attack on Biden, a former black vice president and the problem of immigration
Less than a month ago, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was riding high: He was ahead in the polls, led a unified party at the Republican National Convention and had a disciplined message to defeat President Biden.
Since Harris emerged as his replacement, polling suggests she does not have the same vulnerabilities or negative vibes as Biden, despite being his vice president. It has taken the Trump campaign some time to figure out what to highlight in attacking Harris.
Trump’s posts on social media and speeches at these events have also become more meandering, disjointed and rooted in grievance compared to earlier in the cycle, when Biden’s age and poor performance often overshadowed polling that found many voters thought Trump was too old to run again, too.
The main message has remained consistent, blasting the Democratic Party’s policy stances around immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, amplified by Harris’ involvement in tackling the issue since taking office.
After a failed assassination attempt against him at a Pennsylvania rally, Trump triumphantly took the stage in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention as head of a party completely in his control and confident that voters would support his vision for America’s future.
But in the weeks since Biden dropped out, the campaign has been dogged by bad news cycles — sometimes of his own creation — that have overshadowed the messaging against his new opponent.
Harris was wrongly claimed by Trump to become Black in order to gain political advantage. At a massive rally in Atlanta, held in the same arena where Harris appeared days before, Trump had personal attacks on Brian Kemp, a popular Republican in Georgia.
His first run as a candidate in 2016 was when he attacks the Harris race, his obsession with crowd size, and other off-the-cuff remarks. He is a quantity because of anger and anti-establishment sentiment to surge past an unpopular opponent.
Trump spoke for nearly two hours at the rally for Tim Sheehy, a GOP Senate nominee in Montana, mostly about his personal grievances and views of the presidential race.
In a sign of the campaign’s new line of attack on Harris, Trump played two video compilations of Harris’ prior statements, one painting her as too progressive in her views around policing, gun restrictions and health care — while the other mocked statements she made and implied she was not smart enough to be president.
He occasionally attacked Montana’s Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester as too liberal and, in one non sequitur, remarked Tester has “got the biggest stomach I have ever seen.”
The 2016 campaign of Donald J.D. Trump revisited: “I’m all you gonna do, but I’m afraid you can’t do that”
Several aspects of the 2016 campaign that some voters didn’t like and Republicans found aren’t as helpful have been repeated in the last three weeks.
In states where the GOP is strong, Trump has not held a lot of rallies. The Republican National Convention has also had a number of rallies by Trump. In 2016, he had 22 in the same time frame.
In a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home Thursday, Trump said he was focused on other types of campaigning beyond large-scale rallies, and that he did not need to campaign as much, calling it a “stupid question” to ask why he hasn’t been on the trail as much.
He said he’s leading by a lot. “And because I’m letting their convention go through, and I am campaigning a lot. commercials that are at a level I don’t think anyone has ever done before are being taped here. Plus, in certain cases, I see many of you in the room where I’m speaking to you on phones, I’m speaking to radio, I’m speaking to television.”
Harris has taken a slight lead over Trump in several national polls released in the last week, including an NPR/PBS News/Marist survey that has Harris with a 3-point lead thanks to a surge in Democratic enthusiasm.
Trump also used the Mar-a-Lago press conference to attack Harris’ intelligence and brag about the audience at his rallies, falsely claiming that more people attended his Jan. 6, 2021, rally than Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
His earlier debate against Biden was a key factor in efforts to get the president to end his campaign for another term, and the massive forum could again shake up the race at an important time, especially because Trump is no longer the clear favorite.
While Trump has not been as active on the campaign trail, his vice presidential pick Ohio Sen. JD Vance held multiple appearances this week, shadowing Harris and her new VP pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz across the Midwest.
After his own rocky news conference, he used the media to speak with local voters about his differences with the Republicans over immigration, inflation and crime.
After the debate and Biden’s decision to step aside, Harris became the Democratic nominee. Harris was able to do what Biden couldn’t or wouldn’t do: fight for attention. She had help, to be sure. A story about coconuts was the root of the online meme. The song is captioned, “kamala IS brat.”