2020
ELECTIONS
Shell-shocked Trump campaign seeks a way forward
Top campaign advisers rethinking their strategy for
the final month, on everything from rallies to fundraisers.
By ALEX
ISENSTADT
10/02/2020
06:45 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/02/trump-campaign-rethinks-strategy-425550
President
Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis has thrust his already reeling reelection
campaign into further disarray and forced his top advisers to rip up their
plans for the final month of the race.
Trump
campaign aides say they’re rethinking everything from rallies to fundraisers,
adjustments that will take the president off the trail and potentially
complicate his efforts to erase former Vice President Joe Biden’s polling lead.
The changes
are hitting the campaign immediately. The president’s team canceled a Friday
rally in must-win Florida and postponed a pair of events slated for Saturday in
Wisconsin. They have also postponed next week’s planned West Coast swing in
Nevada and Arizona. The president was also to appear at a high-dollar donor
event in Los Angeles.
Trump’s
positive test rippled across his political apparatus. With fears of infection
rising, the reelection effort is preparing for a deep clean of its Arlington,
Va., headquarters this weekend. Campaign manager Bill Stepien, meanwhile, sent
a memo to staff saying that anyone “who has had exposure to someone testing
positive should immediately begin self-quarantine.”
Perhaps
most profoundly, the Trump team is being forced to reconsider its strategy for
the final stretch of the campaign. After spending months trying to divert
attention from the president’s management of the pandemic, the coronavirus is
now certain to dominate the rest of the race.
“The debate
over the last few weeks shifted to the [Supreme] Court and the economy, and
that shift was helpful to Trump in drawing attention away from Covid.
Coronavirus will now be front and center for weeks, which is not what he
wanted,” said Mike DuHaime, a veteran GOP strategist.
“The more the focus is on Covid, the worse it is for
him, because he wants this to be a referendum on the future, not on 2020,”
DuHaime added.
The news
caught many Trump aides by surprise and sent them scrambling to figure out how
to proceed. By early Friday afternoon, Stepien released a statement saying that
“all previously announced campaign events involving the president’s
participation are in the process of being moved to virtual events or are being
temporarily postponed.”
Stepien
added that “previously announced events involving members of the first family
are also being temporarily postponed,” and that “all other campaign events will
be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
Pence would
resume his schedule after testing negative earlier in the day, the campaign
said.
But with
time growing short, Trump aides conceded they're eager to get the president
back into the public eye. Some suggested he go on television — perhaps with a
national address — to discuss his diagnosis. But late Friday afternoon, that
appeared unlikely, as Marine One was set to transport to Walter Reed hospital
for treatment.
"I
think it's important ... that the president be visible," said Mick
Mulvaney, Trump's former chief of staff, in an interview on Fox Business on
Friday. "That he be on the phone, that he be on television, that he gets
out on the [White House] Truman Balcony, if he can, because it's important that
people see him and know that he's there."
Perhaps the
biggest question confronting Trump is the next debate, to be held Oct. 15 in
Miami. After a widely panned performance in the first forum, he was intent on
participating in the next one, Trump aides said. Officials with the Commission
on Presidential Debates declined to comment on whether the event would be
rescheduled or reformatted. And it's unclear now whether Trump will be
physically able to participate.
Another
major issue is fundraising. With the president facing a cash crunch, his team
has been scheduling upcoming donor events in Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas.
GOP officials said they were uncertain whether the fundraisers would go
forward, or in what form.
Some senior
Republicans said they were unsure why the president decided to attend a
Thursday evening fundraiser at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club after being
informed that senior aide Hope Hicks was experiencing symptoms.
“In-person
political fundraisers are over for the foreseeable future. RIP. This is the
nail in the coffin,” said Dan Eberhart, a Houston energy executive and Trump
donor. “Trump should not have attended the fundraiser knowing Hope Hicks was
sick and he had been in close proximity with her."
Others,
however, disagreed, saying that none of the attendees were within eight feet of
the president.
Organizers
of the Bedminster event sent an email to attendees informing them of Trump’s
diagnosis and encouraging them to “contact your medical provider if you or any
of your loved ones is ill or develops a fever, shortness of breath, or other
respiratory symptoms.”
Republicans
stressed that some things would go forward as planned. The Republican National
Committee — whose chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, announced Friday that she too had
contracted the coronavirus — is expected to proceed with its nationwide voter
contact program. That includes a door-knocking effort in battleground states.
As they
digested the news, Trump aides conceded they had little idea of how it would
shift the race. Even before Friday, polls — including some conducted by
Republicans — showed the president trailing across an array of battleground
states.
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