Trump’s light campaign schedule as Harris, Walz, Vance barnstorm

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he won’t attend any presidential rallies until after the Democratic National Convention, which ends on Aug. 22.

The Republican candidates’ campaign schedule this month bucks traditional election strategy and contrasts with that of August 2016, when Trump last ran successfully for the White House.

That month, Trump received 27 Noisy election rally In 15 states, Trump has held just one rally so far this month.

A reporter asked Trump on Thursday why he wasn’t “campaigning this week.”

“Because I have a big lead, we’ve passed our convention, we’ve been campaigning hard,” Trump said during a wide-ranging news conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The reporter continued by asking: “Are you planning on traveling again?”

“Well, after their convention,” Trump replied, again referring to the Democratic Convention which begins on August 19.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Mr. Trump and his Republican running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, have all been touring battleground states in the presidential election over the past week.

Harris and Walz first announced their partnership at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, then spoke at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. They are scheduled to head to Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. All five states are hotly contested in November’s election.

For the past five days, Trump has been staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort, conducting telephone interviews and Podcastsand held an hour-long press conference there Thursday.

His public schedule appears to back up his stated plans to reduce travel to rallies in the coming weeks. Currently posted events The “Events” page on the Trump campaign website lists a rally in Montana on Friday that will likely benefit Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy in part.

Sheehy is hoping to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in November, and Trump’s appearance is a big boost for him. Could energize the Republican Party? In a deep red state.

Trump will attend a campaign fundraiser while in Montana, before stopping in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday for another fundraiser before returning to Florida.

CNBC reached out to the Trump campaign, which confirmed that the Republican candidate has no plans to resume large, in-person presidential rallies until after the Democratic National Convention.

“President Trump has a packed travel schedule next week, including rallies, messaging events and fundraisers, and he has held more campaign events than he has in previous years. [Harris] “The combined total for Waltz is $20 million,” Trump spokesman Steven Chang told CNBC.

In a statement on Friday, Harris campaign spokesman James Singer criticized Trump for distancing himself from battleground states with the election so close, saying, “Being president is about who you fight for. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are busy traveling to battleground states to meet with voters, fight for the middle class and count every vote.”

With less than 13 weeks until Election Day, The polls show the results of the presidential election The statistically close race makes Trump’s decision not to mount a full cross-state campaign all the more extraordinary — and raises the possibility of missing a key opportunity to connect with voters he needs to reach if he is to win the November election.

Typically, the last three months of a presidential election Sprint to the finish lineIt starts with the party’s nominating convention in mid-summer and ends on a Tuesday in early November.

As a good example of how this sprint traditionally plays out, and how effective it can be, consider the 2016 White House campaign, which Trump won.

Eight years ago this month, Trump 20 rallies in over 12 states.

Between August 9 and 13 alone, Trump drew huge crowds at seven major campaign rallies, including two each in the battleground states of North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania, as well as one in the Democratic stronghold of Connecticut.

Trump further added: Flip Florida and Pennsylvania In the November election, Trump won two states that Democrat Barack Obama had won in 2012. He also won North Carolina, a state Obama had won in 2008. All of this led to Trump’s victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In-person campaign rallies for both campaigns were largely canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far this month, President Trump Atlanta for the rally The day before, he attended a fundraising event in the Hamptons, an upscale beach area in New York state.

Trump, who was the victim of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, has recently given only a few media interviews rather than attending back-to-back rallies as he did during his first campaign.

He was interviewed by the controversial influencer Adine Ross He said in a livestream Monday that he will appear on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” morning show Wednesday morning and will be interviewed by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk next week.

Meanwhile, Vance, Trump’s running mate, has had a more traditional, visible schedule on the campaign trail.

On Tuesday, en route to an event in Philadelphia, Vance defended Trump’s decision to abandon the August barrage, telling reporters that he and Trump were pursuing a “divide and conquer strategy.”

“One of the things that has to happen, of course, is to get out there and talk to people and to reporters,” the senator said. “The last thing that has to happen, of course, is to raise money, and I know the president is very busy doing just that.”

“Obviously, we’ll do some events together,” Vance said, “but we’re going to take advantage of the fact that we have two people who can get out there and deliver the message.”

To counterbalance Ms Harris and Mr Walz’s campaign efforts this week, Mr Vance spoke in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday and was scheduled to hold two events in North Carolina on Thursday but postponed them because of tropical storm damage.

But none of Vance’s campaign events this week have been labelled as rallies, instead being held as “press statements” attended by only a small group of staffers, reporters and supporters.