Chicago – August 13, 2024
Donald Trump’s advisers are getting increasingly anxious about his flailing public appearances since the attempt on his life and Democrats’ presidential candidate switcheroo—all while knowing he’s unlikely to change.
According to a new Axios report, Trump has grown increasingly angry and frustrated in private as Kamala Harris has surpassed him in multiple polls, a lead that’s only likely to grow after next week’s Democratic National Convention. Fresh polling from The New York Times on Saturday showed Harris leading Trump by four points—just within the margin of error—in three key battleground states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The Times also reported that two recent private polls in Ohio conducted by Republicans revealed that Trump is garnering less than 50 percent of the vote against Harris. In 2020, Trump won Ohio with 53 percent of the vote.
Trump’s anger over Democrats’ resurgence was first apparent in a Times report on Friday, which noted that Trump repeatedly called Harris a “b—h” in private. He also had an aide text billionaire Miriam Adelson, one of Trump’s wealthiest supporters and the funder of super PAC Preserve America, to complain that the people in charge of the group were “RINOs”—Republican in name only—according to the Times.
Aides feared that Adelson, who was reportedly stunned by the outburst, may scale back her donations.
But Trump’s advisers are also aware that they are unlikely to change a 78-year-old man known for his stubbornness. Therefore, they’re focused “not on the need for him to change but on the need to adapt his message to win,” a source told Axios.
“But he has to convince himself to leave the other garbage behind,” the source continued.
The “deeply rattled” advisers are also hoping he’ll take on a new “hard-hitting” stump speech that pushes a winning message, and they’ve invested tens of millions into TV ads in an ad blitz targeting states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan.
