WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are trying to create new battleground states, a signal the general election outcome could rival Saturday’s photo finish in the Kentucky Derby. But such efforts likely will come up short, experts say.

Each of the presumptive presidential nominees is taking shots at the other’s competence and policy ideas, using official events and courthouse rants to go at it. And both are trying to expand the list of swing states — though experts, history and polling suggest long odds — as they scramble to stitch together the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win in November.

Biden campaign aides have contended for weeks that the president could turn North Carolina and Florida blue, saying both are in play despite Trump’s polling leads there.

On Sunday, Jason Miller, a senior Trump aide, tweeted this: ”At a private donor retreat, Trump team says Minnesota and Virginia are in play,” referring to comments Trump reportedly made at a GOP gathering in Florida.

Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based Republican political strategist, said in a Monday phone interview that “any presidential candidate will always want to be trying to expand the electoral map in any way possible.”

He added that Trump’s weekend prognostication should not be met with much surprise, “especially since the candidate, in this case, was talking to their more well-heeled donors.”

Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia said Monday that he “can see the appeal in trying to expand the map,” but added: “Although, I’ll only really believe states like Florida, Minnesota, and Virginia are in play if the candidate that won each state in 2020 feels compelled to commit significant resources to defending them.”

That means if the winner in each of those states resists the urge to take his opponent’s bait, they are unlikely to become actual battlegrounds, according to Kondik. “It’s also unclear exactly how much the 2020 loser spends in those states,” he added in an email, “particularly in a state like Florida, you need to really spend big to hit all of the media markets.”

Republican nominees have won Florida in four of the last six general elections, including by Trump in 2016 and 2020. North Carolina has been in the GOP column in 10 of the last 12 presidential elections.

The last Republican to take Minnesota was Richard M. Nixon in 1972, with Virginia recently going to Democrats in the last four elections after Republicans won the state in the previous 10 cycles.

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