Republican nominee Donald Trump looked cheerful playing golf at his New Jersey club one day earlier this month, then appeared bored in an afternoon news conference and dour during a reception with megadonor Miriam Adelson. He publicly mused about staying home during the Democratic National Convention, letting Vice President Kamala Harris hold the spotlight unchallenged.
Several former aides who have known Trump for years said he always preferred to keep a lighter schedule in August, when his family visited Bedminster and he usually golfed almost every day.
But aides did not want a situation where he was watching the convention every night, getting angry, and then just golfing all day and stewing, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions. Trump also had grown annoyed with the news coverage that depicted him as not working as hard as his opponent, one person who talked to him said.
So the campaign launched back-to-back events over the past week, with the goal of counterprogramming the Democratic convention and securing news coverage, as other campaigns have often done, but also as a way to keep Trump busy.
The candidate, though, often appeared reluctant. He frequently departed from the policy themes assigned to each day’s event — an attempt to keep him focused on poll-tested messages over his pugnacious impulses — illustrating his continued struggle to find his footing in a changed race.
“The stakes for Trump this election are arguably the highest they’ve ever been. His criminal cases don’t go away if he loses. Yet he seems to be phoning it in, running a remarkably low-energy, undisciplined campaign,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House spokeswoman who quit after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “From spending days off the campaign trail golfing to coming up with frankly weak nicknames like ‘Kamabala,’ it feels like he’s lost his mojo.”
By Friday, though, Trump found a thumping audience in a packed 20,000-seat arena in Glendale, Ariz., the same one Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz filled a few weeks earlier. He polled the audience on the nickname he settled on for Harris (Comrade Kamala) after several false starts, while sarcastically deriding his advisers as “my geniuses.”
“President Trump has had a robust schedule since he first announced in November 2022,” spokesman Steven Cheung said. “He spent the entire week discussing substantive policy, something that Kamala Harris refuses to do, or can’t do.”
A person close to the campaign said Trump does not like reading issue-focused speeches that do not entertain his live audience. At an event Thursday at the southern border, the first words out of Trump’s mouth took aim not at Harris’s immigration policies but instead at the Democrats’ decision to choose Harris as President Joe Biden’s replacement at the top of the ticket.
Cheung said that Trump “is able to connect with voters through a wide range of events — from massive rallies to more policy-oriented events,” always communicating “his vision for America.”
While speaking to reporters at an economic-themed campaign event in Las Vegas on Friday, Trump falsely claimed that Harris did not mention the border and mocked Harris for repeatedly thanking the crowd before delivering her acceptance speech at the convention.
Asked about the perception that the change in Democratic candidates had thrown him off, Trump responded: “No, I think we’re doing great.” He proceeded to complain about how “unfair” the change was.
“I spent $100 million fighting against a man that won in their party, and we had a debate and the debate was good for me,” he said. “And then all of a sudden they take him out and they put somebody new in that never got a vote.”
Trump has publicly acknowledged his challenge in defining Harris, describing his goal as to portray her as a “communist.” His frustration with his advisers burst into public Wednesday when he mocked them for telling him to focus on politics instead of personal insults. He then polled the crowd on which they preferred and, when they predictably cheered louder for personal attacks, Trump joked, “My advisers are fired.”
He has not fired anyone, but he did bring in several former advisers into the campaign earlier this month, including 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former spokesman-turned-super PAC chief Taylor Budowich. On Thursday’s border trip, Trump was accompanied by Stephen Miller, his White House speechwriter and immigration hard-liner who has rarely appeared at campaign events during this election cycle.
Amid concerns about the campaign’s focus, some Trump allies have begun trying to fix some problems. His friend Steve Witkoff, for example, helped broker a détente with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), whom Trump extensively attacked during a rally in Atlanta this month. On Thursday, Trump watched Kemp speak positively about him in a Fox News interview and responded with a conciliatory social media post.
At the Glendale rally, hosted by the pro-Trump group Turning Point Action, Trump welcomed the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his independent presidential bid early on Friday and received a standing ovation from Trump’s crowd. Trump is also hoping soon to roll out an endorsement from Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii.
Trump tried to cut into Harris’s acceptance speech by live-blogging his real-time reactions on Truth Social, responding with insults, deflections and non sequiturs. He then called in to both Fox News and Newsmax to continue his attacks.
“Donald Trump immediately melted down and hasn’t recovered since,” Harris-Walz spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said. “Voters are watching an unhinged and unserious man rant on Truth Social, rave on Fox News and hold bizarre rallies where he rambles for hours about his own problems and throws out strange and dangerous ideas.”
Trump’s campaign logged mentions of his name during the Democratic convention, hoping to depict the Democratic Party as less focused on policy and more on being obsessed with him. Across hundreds of name-drops, DNC convention speakers described Trump as a narcissist, a criminal, a charlatan, a race-baiter and more in searing speeches suggesting he remains the unifying target of the Democratic Party.
Most of his allies offered little defense of his character. There was no rapid response operation to respond to Democratic criticism that he inspired a riot at the U.S. Capitol, paid hush money to an adult film actress or was found liable for sexual abuse. Instead, surrogates and aides attacked Harris and Walz for not addressing Republican policy priorities and made a website portraying Harris’s policy record in a negative light.
“They’re focused on Trump rather than the border, inflation or public safety,” Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes told reporters on Tuesday in Chicago. “Obviously their convention is about who they’re running against and not what they’re running for.”
Joining Hughes, with large posters behind them highlighting crimes in major cities, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) mocked the optimistic message of the convention, inside Trump’s luxurious hotel here. “Joy and vibes isn’t going to put food on the table,” he said. “Go take your joy to the mullahs in Iran and see what happens to you.”
In the coming week, Trump will travel to Michigan, hold a town hall in La Crosse, Wis., a rally in Johnstown, Pa., and then to Washington for the Moms for Liberty summit. Harris and Walz, meanwhile, will spend Wednesday and Thursday campaigning together in a bus tour of Georgia, after which Harris will host a Thursday evening rally in the Savannah area.