EGN NEWS DESK
Donald Trump spent two years getting ready to run towards Joe Biden. The former President’s marketing campaign crafted a surgical technique aimed toward tearing down a selected opponent. But now that Democrats are set to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s workforce just isn’t throwing away the outdated playbook.
Throughout this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Trump’s marketing campaign plans to carry each day press conferences at his native Trump Hotel to puncture the Democrats’ reintroduction of Harris to the nation. Specifically, Trump aides say, they may affiliate Harris with Biden’s insurance policies—or what they estimate are his greatest vulnerabilities.
“There is a race to inform Americans who do not know her who she is,” senior Trump adviser Brian Hughes tells TIME. “She owns all the things that is occurred within the White House. She’s not a brand new factor. She’s been in workplace, advocating for all of those insurance policies.”
On Monday, Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin held an hour-long occasion with reporters on the financial system, lambasting “Bidenomics” as answerable for the ravages of inflation triggered after the Covid-induced provide chain disaster. The two lawmakers stood at a Trump podium wedged between posters outlining value will increase on all the things from baked items and child meals to meat, poultry, and fish.
For the remainder of the week, completely different surrogates will maintain each day morning press conferences on Trump’s different core themes: on Tuesday, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida will give attention to crime; on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida will give attention to nationwide safety; and on Thursday, the main target will probably be on immigration, although the Trump marketing campaign has but to finalize the messenger. “We needed to verify at the very least have a messaging occasion on daily basis right here in Chicago,” says Hughes.
The plan reveals a central Trump marketing campaign technique with lower than three months till the election: tack Harris to Biden as a lot as doable.
The President, who at present has solely a 37% approval score, was dropping to Trump in most polls earlier than he dropped out of the race final month. Since then, Harris swiftly consolidated help amongst her party’s delegates and engineered a reversal in Trump’s polling momentum. Multiple current surveys present Harris with at the very least a 3% edge over Trump nationally, whereas a New York Times/Siena College ballot revealed over the weekend reveals her gaining floor in crucial swing states. At the identical time, her favorability score is 10 factors greater than Biden’s, in line with an AP/NORC survey. Even Trump’s personal pollster acknowledges that she’s prone to take pleasure in a post-convention bump.
Harris has sought to string a needle between honoring the President beneath whom she nonetheless serves and attempting to carve out an identification unbiased of him. Last week, she rolled out an financial agenda that included increasing the kid tax credit score, with $6,000 for households with newborns, and implementing a price-gouging ban at grocery shops.
Over the approaching week, Democratic stars reminiscent of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are anticipated to offer rousing speeches on the United Center extolling a reborn party with a brand new standard-bearer. To that finish, Trump’s marketing campaign plans to make its counterargument every morning, just some miles down the highway. “She was the co-pilot of the ship for the final three and a half years,” says Hughes.
