Donald Trump amplified a vulgar joke about Vice President Kamala Harris performing a sex act. He falsely accused her of staging a coup to secure the Democratic nomination and faulted her without evidence for a security lapse that enabled a rogue gunman to try to assassinate him. He shared a manipulated online image of Bill Gates in an orange jumpsuit and a call for Barack Obama to face a “military tribunal.” He promoted explicit tributes to the QAnon conspiracy theory. He hawked digital trading cards in an online infomercial along with pieces of his debate night suit. (“People are calling it the knockout suit.”) His campaign feuded publicly with Arlington National Cemetery over their visit.
And that was just in the span of 24 hours.
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With fewer than 70 days until the election, Trump is zigging and zagging with an arsenal of unfocused attacks and peripheral pursuits that for any other politician would amount to a stunning stretch at such a pivotal moment in the campaign.
But when it comes to the former president, the burst of activity on Tuesday and Wednesday was a snapshot of the chaos that has defined his political career and in some ways marked a throwback to his first run in 2016, when he waged a frenetic, unpredictable campaign that put his party on edge all the way up until his surprise victory.
Some Republicans have grown similarly nervous this time around. With pressure mounting to drive a sharper message against Harris, the Republican presidential nominee is delving into distractions and delivering a mix of incendiary and false statements. While such tactics have been on regular display in his third run for the White House, he is now pushing them further, running the risk of alienating key voters.
“I think people are incredibly frustrated,” said Jason Roe, a former Michigan GOP executive director and longtime Republican strategist. Harris’s campaign and policies, Roe said, “provide opportunities for the Trump campaign to talk about issues that actually will matter to swing voters. And rather than doing that, he’s delving into this nonsense.”
Responding to an inquiry about the former president’s comments in the past week, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused The Washington Post of focusing unfairly on “a few social media posts” and “negative stories” about Trump instead of Harris’s policies as vice president and Trump’s “highly successful policy speeches in battleground states over the past week.”
Polling shows Trump and Harris locked in a close race, and many voters have embraced or repeatedly brushed off Trump’s most incendiary behavior. Trump won an upset victory in 2016 despite the leak of a tape in which he bragged about groping women, which many in the GOP had viewed as catastrophic. Republicans have largely rallied behind Trump this campaign, defending him through his false claims of a stolen election, his criminal charges, his conviction this spring and a slew of controversies.
But Harris’s nomination to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket has made Trump’s position more tenuous. In a tightening contest, the former president has lashed out at his new opponent with belittling nicknames, ideological criticisms and sometimes sexist and racist attacks. He has aggressively cast Harris as too liberal but also lingered on Biden — frequently complaining that the switch is unfair — and lobbed false attacks on Harris’s racial identity.
Republican calls for more focus and discipline have run up against a candidate who has appeared determined to take the opposite approach over the past couple of weeks. On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign was battling accusations that employees acted disrespectfully when Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery this week to commemorate the third anniversary of the United States’ deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Defense officials said Trump aides clashed with a cemetery staff member who tried to prevent them from taking prohibited photos in a gravesite area. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said the campaign was given permission to bring a photographer and suggested a person who blocked Trump staff was “suffering from a mental health episode.”
And that was just in the span of 24 hours.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
With fewer than 70 days until the election, Trump is zigging and zagging with an arsenal of unfocused attacks and peripheral pursuits that for any other politician would amount to a stunning stretch at such a pivotal moment in the campaign.
But when it comes to the former president, the burst of activity on Tuesday and Wednesday was a snapshot of the chaos that has defined his political career and in some ways marked a throwback to his first run in 2016, when he waged a frenetic, unpredictable campaign that put his party on edge all the way up until his surprise victory.
Some Republicans have grown similarly nervous this time around. With pressure mounting to drive a sharper message against Harris, the Republican presidential nominee is delving into distractions and delivering a mix of incendiary and false statements. While such tactics have been on regular display in his third run for the White House, he is now pushing them further, running the risk of alienating key voters.
“I think people are incredibly frustrated,” said Jason Roe, a former Michigan GOP executive director and longtime Republican strategist. Harris’s campaign and policies, Roe said, “provide opportunities for the Trump campaign to talk about issues that actually will matter to swing voters. And rather than doing that, he’s delving into this nonsense.”
Responding to an inquiry about the former president’s comments in the past week, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused The Washington Post of focusing unfairly on “a few social media posts” and “negative stories” about Trump instead of Harris’s policies as vice president and Trump’s “highly successful policy speeches in battleground states over the past week.”
Polling shows Trump and Harris locked in a close race, and many voters have embraced or repeatedly brushed off Trump’s most incendiary behavior. Trump won an upset victory in 2016 despite the leak of a tape in which he bragged about groping women, which many in the GOP had viewed as catastrophic. Republicans have largely rallied behind Trump this campaign, defending him through his false claims of a stolen election, his criminal charges, his conviction this spring and a slew of controversies.
But Harris’s nomination to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket has made Trump’s position more tenuous. In a tightening contest, the former president has lashed out at his new opponent with belittling nicknames, ideological criticisms and sometimes sexist and racist attacks. He has aggressively cast Harris as too liberal but also lingered on Biden — frequently complaining that the switch is unfair — and lobbed false attacks on Harris’s racial identity.
Republican calls for more focus and discipline have run up against a candidate who has appeared determined to take the opposite approach over the past couple of weeks. On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign was battling accusations that employees acted disrespectfully when Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery this week to commemorate the third anniversary of the United States’ deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Defense officials said Trump aides clashed with a cemetery staff member who tried to prevent them from taking prohibited photos in a gravesite area. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said the campaign was given permission to bring a photographer and suggested a person who blocked Trump staff was “suffering from a mental health episode.”