Analysis: Why Trump's take on Harris' campaign style is so telling

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has a tell, and it has been on full display lately.

The Republican nominee and former president often accuses his opponents of doing things he does or has been accused of doing. For instance, as he was racking up, at one point, 91 felony charges, he cooked up the “Crooked Joe” moniker for his then-expected general election foe, President Joe Biden.

Trump was an extremely active campaigner during the 2016 election cycle, regularly holding multiple rallies in multiple states. The COVID-19 pandemic limited his rally schedule in 2020, but there are no such restrictions now. Yet he has held but two rallies in recent weeks — and one was in deep-red Montana, not a presidential battleground, as he worked to help an effort to oust Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

One Republican strategist on Friday said he expects Trump would soon get back on the campaign trail to try taking attention off the Democratic candidates, while also keeping up his recent pace of interviews with mostly friendly media outlets. But Trump, during a press conference last Thursday, curiously said he was keeping his rally scheduled on the lighter side until after Democrats finish their national convention, slated for next week in Chicago.

His campaign on Monday announced two new events, a speech on the economy Wednesday in Asheville, N.C., and a rally Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Trump snapped at a reporter during a press conference last Thursday at his Florida resort, saying it was a “stupid question” to ask about whispers in GOP circles about his light campaign schedule. He also claimed his light schedule reflects that he was “leading by a lot,” which was not true on Thursday afternoon; and a New York Times poll released since puts Vice President Kamala Harris up nationally and in some key swing states.

So it has been very telling that Trump and his surrogates have seized on Harris, the Democratic nominee, doing no sit-down interviews since Biden stepped aside on July 21.

Team Trump has resurrected a line from his unsuccessful 2020 campaign against Biden, whom he often criticized then for running for president from his Wilmington, Del., residence.

“I think you guys have got to do a better job at actually forcing Kamala Harris to answer questions,” Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, told reporters after walking from his private plane to Air Force Two on a tarmac in Michigan on Aug. 6. “The American people deserve to get to know the people who want to lead them.

“And I think it’s shameful for Kamala Harris, but increasingly for the media, that she is taking a basement strategy of running from reporters instead of getting in front of them,” Vance added, “and answering tough questions about her record and letting the American people know who she is.”

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, spent last week barnstorming the country with rallies in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “Trump Force One,” as the former president calls his private jet, was mostly parked at a Florida airport and he was at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

But Trump remains adept at getting attention. There was the press conference last week, then his Monday night interview with Elon Musk, the head honcho at X, formerly Twitter.

Trump, during the marathon two-hour session, showed flashes of the candidate some Republicans want him to be. “The election is coming up, and people want to hear about the economy. Food prices are up … and this stupid administration allowed this to happen,” he said. “And it’s a shame. And that’s the thing people most care about, in my opinion.”

But he also let his frustration with having to run against Harris show, falsely calling her ascension to the nomination a “coup.” He also griped about how the media has covered her rise, saying of a Time magazine cover featuring a sketch of Harris: “She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live.”

“It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania,” he told Musk, referring to his wife, Melania Trump. “She hasn’t done an interview since this whole scam started.” And despite Biden being scheduled to deliver public remarks Tuesday in New Orleans, Trump claimed the 81-year-old president is nearing a “vegetable stage.”

‘Etch A Sketch candidate’

To be sure, Trump has a proven ability to generate headlines. And perhaps that means he won’t have to campaign as much as he did in 2016 or even 2020.

“Pretty amazing that three weeks of massive developments have not budged Trump’s vote share one bit. All the change has been on the Democratic side,” Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor of Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, wrote on X. “The day Biden dropped out: Trump 43.5%. Today: Trump 43.5%.”

Trump surrogates claim the media has ignored such data points.

“What truly frustrates them,” the GOP strategist said of Trump campaign officials, “is she’s the ‘Etch A Sketch candidate.’ She’s flip-flopped on so many of the big issues. But the media has just Etch A Sketched her into some kind of phenomena. That was pretty damn unthinkable a few weeks ago.

“Over the last three weeks, Harris has gotten the most fawning coverage in presidential history. Look, she was one of the most unpopular VPs, polling wise, we’ve ever seen,” the strategist added in a telephone interview. “She’s flip-flopped on fracking, on the border. Now, they’re hiding her from taking questions from (the media) just like they did Joe Biden.”

Trump campaign officials did not respond to an email inquiry about their boss’s campaign schedule.

The Harris-Walz campaign has noticed Trump’s light campaign schedule.

“He isn’t actually campaigning, his public appearances are disasters, and his Project 2025 agenda is dragging him down as much as it would drag America backward. He doesn’t seem well,” campaign spokesperson James Singer said of Trump in a statement. “Vice President Harris is the only candidate out on the campaign trail in swing states fighting to win this election. Ok by us!”

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