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Former President Donald Trump appears to be frustrated with the momentum behind Kamala Harris’ campaign.
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Trump’s messages this week included praise for the size of the crowd and his defense of Biden.
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Some allies have acknowledged the challenges of the campaign and Trump’s need to stay on message.
Former President Donald Trump seemed to be on top of the world, which now seems like a fleeting moment this summer.
He led in the presidential election. His opponent delivered perhaps the most devastating debate performance in recent memory. The Supreme Court granted him some presidential immunity, and a Florida judge threw out his classified documents. He survived a literal assassination attempt.
But the images of a smiling Trump surrounded by revelers wearing his own earmuffs as Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt in support of the former president seem almost like a distant memory.
Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, there has been unmistakable excitement surrounding her campaign, from record donations to closing the gap — and even leading — in some swing state elections.
After Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as his running mate, the former president even seems a little shocked by Harris’ latest spurt.
When Business Insider reached out for news of Trump’s frustration with the pace of the Harris campaign, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chueng called it “fake news.”
“President Trump and his campaign team are doing everything they can to win this election,” he said in an email, adding that the stakes were too high and “everyone knows how to row together in the same direction. The party and the movement have never been more united.”
Trump keeps going off message
When President Joe Biden was his opponent, Trump seemed to have no trouble staying on message: Biden is too old, look at the border, look at how high the prices are at the grocery store, etc.
But with Harris, Trump can’t seem to nail down a counter-message, at times even visibly frustrated at a press conference this week at the hype surrounding his campaign.
He hasn’t been able to avoid bringing up race and gender — even questioning Harris’ heritage when he spoke at a conference of black journalists — even as allies urged him to focus on the issues.
He has even taken to defending Biden.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, he unfoundedly said that Harris and other Democrats “stole” the presidency from Biden.
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, he again insisted that Biden had “the right to run” but that the Democrats “took it away.”
When a reporter asked Trump at the same press conference if he was concerned about the size of the crowd Harris was leading, he seemed indignant in response. “Oh, give me a break,” he said, accusing the press of being oblivious to the large crowds he drew.
He even claimed that he drew a bigger crowd to the National Mall on January 6, 2021 than Martin Luther King Jr. did in 1963 when he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. (King had an estimated 250,000 people. The January 6 committee estimated Trump had 53,000.)
Some Trump allies are also concerned
It’s not just Trump who seems a bit rattled by the electoral tables turning, as some on the right lost faith in the former president’s ability to win in November.
“At the convention, it was game over, and the Democrats understood that,” Republican National Committeeman Richard Porter told The Washington Post. “It felt like it was too good to be true, and it was.”
Five people close to the campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Post Trump that Trump is constantly expressing frustration with how the race is shaping up. “It’s unfair that I hit him and now I have to hit him too,” Trump recently told an ally, the news outlet reported.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, even admitted to the Post that the campaign has “hit a few speed bumps.”
Right-winger Ben Shapiro told The New York Times that Trump needs to focus on attacking the Harris-Walz campaign and “stick to the simple point: You were better off in 2019 than you were in 2024.”
It’s impossible to say whether all the momentum behind the Harris campaign will ultimately lead to a victory in November.
Meanwhile, Trump’s handling of the issue may not help his case.
Read the original article on Business Insider
