Greensboro— He claims his four criminal charges and mug shot helped him win over Black people who saw him as a victim of discrimination. He's implied that he's a political dissident like Alexei Navalny, who perished in a Putin-run Arctic prison. He lies about his lost election in almost every public appearance.
Candidates nearing party nominations soften their messaging and temper their ideas, which may excite primary voters but alienate more mainstream voters. Politically, they "pivot. No Donald Trump. The former president is doubling down on provocative rhetoric that offends many Americans, appearing to be unable to control his irrational and self-defeating tendencies. Even if some of his closest associates have advised him to tone down his rhetoric and avoid alienating independent voters and outsiders.
“Trump is Trump. “That won’t change,” said senior campaign aide Chris LaCivita. “Our job is not to remake Donald Trump.” LaCivita and other campaign leaders said they serve “to amplify and to force project” Trump's message.
He stated the campaign ran anti-Joe Biden commercials before the Iowa caucuses, assuming a general election posture. While Trump is talking less about his last GOP competitor, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his campaign is constructing a general election infrastructure as it shifts from early voting states to November battlegrounds.
Taking over the Republican National Committee would unify the party and campaign's funding, political operations, messaging, and research. LaCivita might become RNC COO while continuing his campaign. “The campaign’s pivot,” LaCivita added, “is just a realization that we got what we need to win. That shows in messaging and mechanics.” He predicted “more of the same” after Trump's nomination later this month.
Biden's reelection team aims to excite disillusioned Democrats and independent voters by warning against a second Trump administration, no matter how familiar his worst tendencies seem nine years after his first presidential run.
Trump's rallies can last two hours as he alternates between policy suggestions, personal stories and jokes, attacks on his opponents, claims of court persecution, and gloomy predictions about the country's future. Trump frequently adds asides not in his prepared statements. But some of his most contentious remarks are scripted.
He boasted about appointing three Supreme Court judges who voted to remove a national right to abortion while urging Republicans not to be too aggressive on a subject Democrats have won triumphs on. He has called immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing Adolf Hitler, and promised the greatest deportation effort in U.S. history. Once calling his rivals “vermin,” opponents call him authoritarian.
stay turned for development