The Campaign Update: Two Months After Announcing, Trump Holds First Campaign Events
Back in October and early November, when rumors were flying around that Donald Trump planned to announce his 2024 candidacy shortly after the mid-term elections had come and gone, Republican party leaders urged the former president to keep his powder dry until after the first of the year. Wait for the lame duck congress to do its work and the new congress to get organized before you jump in and take all the air out of the room, they argued.
Personally, I didn’t see what the big deal in all that was, but looking back, I do have to wonder why Trump was so anxious to announce he was running, given that he obviously had no plans to actually do anything until late January in any event.
Yesterday, Mr. Trump held a pair of campaign events, one in South Carolina and the other in New Hampshire:
These were the first actual events he’s held since he announced way back in November, and, as the New York Times and other corrupt, garbage media outlets noted, they were, for Trump, tightly organized.
Here’s an excerpt from the Reuters story:
In contrast to the raucous rallies in front of thousands of devotees that Trump often holds, Saturday's events were notably muted. In Columbia, Trump spoke to about 200 people in the state's capitol building, with Governor Henry McMaster and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina flanking him.
Once the undisputed center of gravity in the Republican Party, an increasing number of elected officials have expressed concerns about Trump's ability to beat Democratic President Joe Biden, if he decides to run again as is widely expected.
Numerous Republicans are considering whether to launch their own White House bids, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, widely seen as the biggest threat to Trump. Top Republicans in both states that the former president visited - including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley - are among those weighing bids of their own.
There were several conspicuous absences in South Carolina, including the state party chairman, five Republican U.S. representatives from the state and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who has himself been floated as a potential Republican presidential candidate.
[End]
Not that Trump really gives a damn what Reuters, the AP and the Times think about it all, but the decision to kick things off in this muted way does seem somewhat odd.
Trump loyalists on Twitter tried to put the best possible face on it, because of course they did - it’s their job. Here’s Monica Crowley’s take:
I’m sure the folks on Fox & Friends are raving about Trump’s new-found focus and discipline, too. Because of course they are.
But here’s the thing: We have been here before. There were several periods of time during Trump’s first run and through his presidency in which he actually took the advice of his highly paid communications team and toned things down for awhile. Each and every time he tried this tack, though, it lasted for about 5 minutes before he was back on Twitter building a case for the evil censors there to ban him, and again railing and claiming things that were all too often simply not true.
I certainly do not underestimate Trump, per Monica’s warning, but I also know that he simply lacks the self-discipline to campaign in such a quiet, organized way for any significant length of time. Trump loves being out among the adoring masses; he craves the attention; indeed, his ego requires it.
We all know that is true, don’t we? Sure, we do. Anyone who had followed Trump’s career knew it all before he and Melania rolled down that elevator at Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his first candidacy.
Honestly, I didn’t have a problem with that aspect of Trump’s character then, and I don’t have a problem with it now. It is who he is, and he cannot be successful if he tries to campaign as someone other than that.
So, don’t expect this to last long - he will be back doing the big rallies before you know it.
But back to the original point: Why insist on announcing in early November if you have no plans to actually campaign until late January?
Think about how much more impactful that event in New Hampshire would have been if Trump’s formal campaign announcement had been a part of it. That would have been real news. As it was, everyone is dutifully covering the events, but it’s hard to detect any real excitement around them.
With the advantage of hindsight, it is now clear that the decision to announce so soon after the election was a strategic error - certainly not fatal in any way, but significant. No hindsight is needed, though, to understand that this effort to have Trump campaign in standard politician, carefully-read-from-the-teleprompter stump speech mode is another strategic error.
Trump is who he is, and he won’t win in 2024 by pretending to be something else.
That is all.
Do you think there has been some sort of communication between team DeSantis and team Trump? Something has changed.