The Trump Campaign Tries to Change the Subject

With less than three months to go until Election Day, Donald Trump’s campaign this week tried again to hit the reset button. “We’re going to run like we’re the underdog,” Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, told Fox News on Monday. Before Stepien spoke, the Trump team released two new television ads targeting Joe Biden, who, thus far, has proved an elusive foe. One features a montage of Biden with Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and claims that Biden “has embraced the policies of the radical left.” The other shows a woman of color silently holding up printed cards, the last two of which say “i’m afraid to say this out loud… i won’t risk my children’s future with biden.”

These ads seem to have come from the same playbook that Trump has been relying on for months now, with little success if you believe the polls. To get a better idea of how the campaign is trying to motivate the President’s loyal supporters and reach out to less committed ones, I downloaded the campaign’s official app, which promised to supply me with “exclusive content and campaign updates.” For a couple of days, I dived into the online Trump world, which turned out to be an immersive experience.

After registering, I was immediately invited to sign up and watch some of the app’s proprietorial video content, including “Triggered,” a show that features the President’s son Donald Trump, Jr., and “Theology Thursday with Speaker Gingrich.” As I waited for these examples of must-see viewing to begin, I watched another show, which had been recorded a few days previously. “The Right View” is the Trump campaign’s version of “The View,” the popular daily talk show that airs on ABC. The four hosts were Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law; Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor and Fox News host who is dating Donald Trump, Jr.; Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist who was a spokesperson for Trump’s 2016 campaign; and Mercedes Schlapp, a Republican communications operative who served in the Trump White House from 2017 to 2019. Continue reading.