While President Donald Trump’s advisers have said to ignore national polling, the president’s own words are reflecting what those numbers say.
He’s mused out loud about an embarrassing 2020 defeat. He’s acknowledged his severe deficit in key polls. And he’s made naked appeals to the critical voting blocs of suburban women and older adults — two demographics he has struggled to win over.
Just weeks from Election Day, President Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud about his own campaign. The president is crisscrossing the country with a packed schedule, flying to some states he won handily in 2016, to deliver a final pitch for a second term — and making no secret of his own shaky standing.
Could you imagine if I lose?” Trump said Friday evening at a campaign rally in Macon, Ga. “My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say, ‘I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.’ I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.”
Part of the act is tactical, aides say. Trump thrives on being underestimated, and they point to how the president came from behind in 2016. National polls at the time showed Trump lagging against Hillary Clinton in the weeks leading up to the election, yet he continued his marathon of rallies and latched onto news about Clinton that helped him paint a picture of elites in Washington that boosted his campaign. A similar strategy is in play once more, with the president back on the road and focusing his attention on news about the Biden family’s business dealings alongside allegations of his own unfair treatment.
“He campaigns best when he is counterpunching,” said Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition and remains close to the 2020 campaign. “He’s the running back who runs toward the tackles as opposed to the running back who runs away. We used to say he’s like Rocky Balboa — he waits for his opponent to punch and then he comes back to deliver the knockout blow.”
Trump aides in this case hope the counterpunch can propel him to a better place in the race. Despite trying to project strength and confidence after his bout with the coronavirus, during which he went on supplemental oxygen and was hospitalized for three nights, the president has openly acknowledged just how far he has slipped. A poll released by Morning Consult on Thursday showed Democratic nominee Joe Biden ahead of Trump by 9 percentage points, and leading in the critical states of Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan.
At campaign stops and in interviews, Trump has been openly grappling with the prospect of a loss and — like a TV pundit — articulating why exactly he’s behind.
Although more than half of white women voted for Trump in 2016, an ABC News/Washington Post poll released last week showed Biden leading Trump by 28 points among suburban women.
So at a rally in the Rust Belt town of Johnstown, Pa., the president aired conversations about the support he has lost from suburban women and continued his pitch to voters who live outside of places like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
“Somebody said, ‘I don’t know if the suburban woman likes you.’ I said, ‘Why?’” Trump told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night. “They said, ‘They may not like the way you talk.’ But I’m about law and order. I’m about having you safe.”
“So can I ask you to do me a favor? Suburban women, will you please like me?” Trump asked. “I saved your damn neighborhood.”
A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump down by 27 points against Biden with people over the age of 65, another key demographic that fueled his 2016 victory.
So while the president was recovering from Covid-19, he released a special video message aimed at his so-called “favorite people in the word: seniors.”
“I’m a senior,” the 74-year-old said. “I know you don’t know that. Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to tell them, but I’m a senior.”
But the president still managed to step on his own message days later, when he tweeted out a meme mocking Biden — who Trump has suggested is senile — in a nursing home, surrounded by elderly people.
On Friday, he traveled to Fort Myers, Fla., considered a Republican stronghold, to deliver a speech on “Protecting America’s Seniors.”
“Seniors are under threat from a radical-left movement that seeks to destroy the American way of life,” Trump said. “We’re not going to allow it.”
Trump’s messaging — begging for votes, even half-jokingly — carries risks for the president at this stage of the race.
“He’s taking the wrong approach,” said longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz. “He should be talking about earning their support rather than asking them to give him their support. He should be turning that electoral weakness into a strength.”
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One former senior White House official said even the president contracting the coronavirus and losing a week on the campaign trail could be seen as a messaging “silver lining.”
If he loses, the official said, “Trump has another excuse.”
- Discussion
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While President Trump’s advisers have said to ignore national polling, the president’s own words are reflecting what those numbers say https://t.co/bpZiYyFATn
— POLITICO (@politico) October 17, 2020
Promise? https://t.co/sxSqRPZFvT
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 17, 2020
If he leaves, where would he go? Would have to pick a country with no extradition treaty with the US. Someone on social media speculated that would be Russia. Trouble with Russia though is the climate. I doubt there are any places in Russia where he could golf year-round.
If he did go to Russia, he could bring with him a whole bunch of intelligence and military secrets. He could exchange all that for forgiveness of his loans from Russian banks.
I doubt he will go anywhere. His cult needs him to lead the revolution to overthrow the government.
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