At one event this weekend, Trump called Biden's border policy “a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.” “Donald Trump is still Donald Trump — the same extreme, dangerous candidate voters rejected in 2020, and they’ll reject him again this November regardless of his team,” said Biden spokesman Kevin Munoz.
Trump's aides have advised him to focus less on grievance and vengeance and more on a second term. Trump is entrenched in his ways after three presidential elections and four years in power. Former aides realized long ago that pressuring Trump to control his instincts simply made him stubborner. His campaign team seems to trust the former president's political instincts, given his GOP primary sweep.
Steven Cheung, Trump's spokesperson, said Trump wouldn't change Americans “deserve a president who will not sugarcoat what’s happening in the world,” he said. Republicans, including Trump backers and those supporting Haley's embattled effort, worry that Trump could miss a golden opportunity against Biden, who has low approval ratings and voter reservations about his age and suitability for a second term.
At some point (Trump) needs to take the spotlight off himself,” said Haley supporter Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman. Davis cited better economic statistics but said Biden worried about inflation and “has been bad on the border” and “terrible on the deficit.” Even Trump voters see the issue: A quarter of Trump's backers and half of conservative South Carolina Republicans worry he is too extremist to win the general election
Trump rallied Saturday in North Carolina and Virginia, two states with Super Tuesday primaries but potential swing states in November. Trump may face November issues in both states: He leads conservatives in rural and small-town America but struggles with moderates in cities.
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who was re-elected in 2020 despite Trump's victory, welcomed the contrast between Trump and Biden. “Do you want a president who wakes up every morning thinking about the American people?” he questioned in an interview. “Or do you want a president who wakes up thinking about himself?”
2020 Virginia went for Biden. Virginians elected Republican Glenn Youngkin governor a year later. Youngkin drew Trump-rejecting urban and suburban moderates with education and economic policy. Suburban and exurban congressional districts in certain states have favored Democrats under Trump
Trump friend Newt Gingrich, who often speaks to the former president, compared 2024 to 1980, when Republican Ronald Reagan won a landslide against Democratic President Jimmy Carter, who faced inflation, high unemployment, and international turmoil. Reagan, known as “the happy warrior,” won 44 states and a Republican Senate with “a positive vision” beyond Carter’s record, Gingrich added.
When you have the numbers Biden has, what people need is approximately 70% positive, 30% anti-Biden,” Gingrich said, predicting a Republican wave like when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, a replay of 2018, when Republicans lost the House majority, 2020, when Trump lost and Democrats reclaimed Senate control, or 2022, when Republicans lost winnable Senate races and failed to flip the chamber, is possible.
Lindsey Graham advises Trump and his team to “just keep doing what they’re doing.” Graham has changed course. Graham declared that “if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed” after his 2016 presidential campaign. He now advises Trump. “Everybody that wants to give him advice, he beat like a drum,” Graham said at Trump's South Carolina victory party.
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