Republicans had a plan for former President Donald Trump’s speech Wednesday afternoon in Asheville, North Carolina. His 2024 presidential campaign announced that the address would focus on the economy, an area where he still generally polls ahead of Democratic rival Kamala Harris, even as she’s closed the gap. It could be, the campaign clearly hoped, a chance to reset the race after a monthlong span in which Harris managed to turn a distinct GOP lead into a toss-up contest.
Multiple Republicans went on Trump’s favorite platform — cable news — to remind him to focus on policy. On the Asheville stage, they flanked him with signs touting two elements of his campaign platform: “no tax on tips” and “no tax on Social Security.”
But just moments after opening his speech, Trump was instead complaining about Time magazine’s latest cover, which features an artist’s portrayal of Harris.
“They don’t use a picture; they use an artist’s sketch,” Trump said. He would later criticize Harris’ laugh, calling it “career-threatening” and “the laugh of a person with some big problems.”
Though Trump did eventually get to the point of the 75-minute speech, repeatedly slamming Harris for inflation under President Joe Biden’s administration and promising to cut costs himself, he essentially had to remind himself to focus on the task at hand.
“We’re talking about a thing called the economy. They wanted to do a speech on the economy,” Trump said, adding: “This is an intellectual speech. You’re all intellectuals today.”
At another point, Trump said of the economy: “They say it’s the most important subject. I’m not sure it is.”
Trump’s inability to focus on a policy contrast with Harris — whether in press conferences, a meandering interview with billionaire Elon Musk, or Wednesday’s speech — is causing widespread despair in the Republican ranks. The race between Trump and Harris remains close, but GOP operatives worry that Trump — who is set to hold a press conference Thursday in New Jersey — is simply incapable of driving an effective message against Harris, with some fearful that the party as a whole has not united around a way to attack the vice president.
“When he was running against Joe Biden, he was relatively on message. It’s possible to get him on message,” said one GOP strategist, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the leader of his party. “I’m not sure it’s possible to get him on message in this race.”
The strategist said the sudden turnaround in the 2024 contest, in which Trump went from handily beating Biden to trailing Harris in polls of key swing states, had thrown the GOP leader off his game — and said the fact that Harris is a Black woman only added to Trump’s frustration.
Marc Short, who served as the director of legislative affairs in the Trump White House and later as then-Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, dryly acknowledged that Trump “has never really been a policy wonk.” But, in the past, conservative policymakers had more influence over Trump and could help convince him to clearly differentiate himself from Democrats.
“I think it’s discouraging to see him fail to draw a sharp contrast,” Short said. “If you present him with policy and the evidence it works, he’s able to draw a contrast. I’m confused as to why he’s not doing that with inflation and the border.”
Public polling typically shows Trump leading Harris on who is best equipped to handle issues like immigration, inflation and the economy in general, though his advantages are smaller than what he had against Biden. Harris typically leads on who is best equipped to protect democracy and handle abortion rights, as well as on other traditional Democratic causes like education and the environment.
Democrats, meanwhile, are delighting in Trump’s meandering.
“Convincing Donald Trump to talk about policy is like convincing Hannibal Lecter to go vegetarian,” said Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist, in reference to the fictional cannibal.
Ferguson noted that Democrats would be likely to commission polling to convince an off-message candidate to talk about important issues, but convincing Trump requires Republicans to go on his favorite cable news programs. And they are certainly trying.
On Tuesday afternoon, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former United Nations ambassador turned primary rival turned endorser, showed up on Fox News to deliver some instructions.
“I want this campaign to win, but the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes,” said Haley, referring to Trump alleging that massive crowds supporting Harris were somehow generated by artificial intelligence. “It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win talking about whether she’s dumb.”
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, on Monday delivered the message on Fox Business during a conversation with another former Trump aide, economist Larry Kudlow.
“The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see,” Conway said. “It’s fewer insults, more insights and that policy contrast.”
In a radio interview aired Wednesday, Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita insisted to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that the former president was focused on drawing a policy contrast with Harris and largely blamed the media for failing to scrutinize the Democrat.
“If we spend the next week, spend the next two weeks talking about the differences in the price of gasoline, bread, food, these types of things, and people have a clear and distinct understanding that if they vote for Kamala Harris, open borders becomes basic standard policy, the rise in crime continues to stay the same, people are going to start worrying about personal security, national security and their economic security,” he said.
But two Republicans working on downballot races said the Trump campaign has not done enough to impose message discipline on the party and has left congressional campaigns wondering about the best way to attack the vice president.
MAGA Inc., the largest super PAC affiliated with the Trump campaign, has signaled that it plans to slam Harris as a “soft-on-crime radical who is too dangerous for the White House.” (Democrats, for their part, agree that defining Harris as too liberal is the best way to criticize her.)
But Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have been as likely to attack Harris as a “chameleon” without core principles. Though the two messages aren’t inherently contradictory, Republicans worry that the presidential campaign isn’t focused on a message aimed at moving persuadable voters.
“The campaign hasn’t really helped [Trump],” the GOP strategist said. “Can Trump stay on message? What message does the campaign want him to stick to?”