Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to steer clear of presidential campaign events until after the Democratic National Convention, which ends on August 22.
The Republican candidate's schedule this month runs counter to traditional campaign strategy and stands in sharp contrast to Trump's schedule in August 2016, when he last successfully contested the White House.
This month, Trump held 27 loud election campaign rallies in 15 states. In contrast, Trump has only held one rally thus far this month.
A reporter asked Trump on Thursday why he “didn’t campaign this week.”
“Because I'm leading by a large margin, because I'm letting their convention go through, and because I'm doing a lot of campaigning,” Trump responded during a lengthy press conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The reporter asked: “Will you pick up your travel ticket?”
“After their convention, yes,” Trump replied, again referring to the Democratic Party convention, which begins on August 19.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Democratic opponents, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, – in addition to his Republican running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance – have spent the week traveling to swing states within the presidential election.
After introducing their partnership at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Harris and Walz spoke at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. The two will travel to events in Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. All five states are expected to face tough competition within the November election.
For the past five days, Trump has been at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he has conducted telephone interviews and Podcastand where he held the one-hour press conference on Thursday.
His public schedule also seems to substantiate his stated plan to do fewer rally trips in the approaching weeks. Event currently booked The “Events” page of the Trump campaign website mentions a rally on Friday in Montana that may profit Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, amongst others.
Sheehy hopes to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester in November, and Trump’s performance is will likely motivate Republicans in a deep red state.
While in Montana, Trump will attend a fundraiser for his campaign. He will then stop in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday to attend one other fundraiser before returning to Florida.
CNBC has reached out to the Trump team and confirmed that the Republican presidential candidate has no plans to resume large, in-person campaign events ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
“President Trump has a strong travel schedule consisting of rallies, messaging events and fundraisers over the following week. He has held more campaign events than [Harris] and Walz,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told CNBC.
Less than 13 weeks before election day, Polls show that the presidential race in a statistically neck-and-neck race. That makes Trump's decision not to turn his campaign into a state-wide blitzkrieg all the more unusual. It also raises the possibility that Trump is missing out on key opportunities to connect with voters that he needs to give him the best chance of winning in November.
Normally, the last three months of a presidential campaign are a Sprint to the finishbeginning with the nominating convention in mid-summer and ending on a Tuesday in early November.
A good example of how this sprint traditionally works – and how effective it can be – is Trump’s successful campaign for the White House in 2016.
Eight years ago this month, Trump held more than 20 rallies in over a dozen states.
Between August 9 and 13 alone, Trump thrilled the crowds at seven major campaign events: two each in the swing states of North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania, plus another event in Connecticut, a Democratic stronghold.
Trump would continue Turn around Florida and Pennsylvania in November, two states that Democrat Barack Obama had won in 2012. He also swept North Carolina, where Obama had won in 2008. All in all, it was a victory for Trump against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In 2020, in-person campaign events on both sides were largely suspended due to the Covid pandemic.
This month, Trump has traveled to Atlanta for a rally on August 3. The day before, he attended a fundraiser in the Hamptons, an upscale beach enclave in New York.
Instead of attending one rally after another as he did during his first campaign, Trump – who survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July – has recently participated in several media interviews.
He was interviewed by a controversial influencer Adin Ross Via livestream on Monday, he called into Fox News' morning show “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning and said he would be interviewed next week by billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, Trump's running mate Vance is pursuing a more open and traditional campaign schedule.
On his way to an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Vance defended Trump's decision to forgo a blitz in August, telling reporters that he and Trump were pursuing a “divide and conquer strategy.”
“One of the things you might have to do, after all, is to exit and consult with people and reporters,” the senator said. “And finally, after all, you might have to boost the obligatory funds. I do know the president could be very busy doing just that.”
“Sometimes we do events together, after all,” Vance said. “But I believe we're going to make the most of the undeniable fact that we’ve two individuals who can each exit and spread a message.”
To counteract Harris and Walz's campaign appearances this week, Vance delivered speeches in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday. He had also planned to hold two events in North Carolina on Thursday, but those were postponed due to the tropical storm.
However, none of Vance's campaign appearances this week are billed as rallies. Instead, they are being staged as “press statements” attended by only small groups of staff, reporters and supporters.
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