WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is ignoring Vice President Kamala Harris’ “honeymoon” in the polls and is confident a divorce could be imminent.
Harris saw a surge in the polls after President Biden dropped out and endorsed her as his successor, effectively erasing Trump’s lead in some states. She also had high turnout at rallies and saw a surge in fundraising.
But the Trump team views all this as “irrational exuberance” on the part of Democrats and says voters will eventually come down from their Harris sugar high, campaign officials told reporters Thursday.
And they are not alone: Democratic strategist David Axelrod first coined the term for Harris this week, arguing that the race is still close despite the boost she has experienced.
The real deciding factor, according to Trump’s campaign team, will come down to who voters think will solve the economic and border problems – issues on which the former president consistently performs better in the polls.
The Trump campaign is betting that Harris’s surge will fade and is taking a sober look at the numbers. Officials said they are looking forward to November because they are not worried about the poll slip.
“The only thing Kamala Harris has accomplished is that she has managed to restore the Democrats’ motivation to vote, at least temporarily,” a Trump official said.
But Harris, the official argued, was “celebrating winning back voters she should have already had” and was “still behind.”
“When everything calms down and she comes back down to earth, all of those numbers are going to change at some point – she’s going to have to answer a question,” the political activist said. “But the truth is, when you look at this election, given the polarization of the electorate, this election is going to be decided by a small group of voters.”
“Who do you think is best placed to handle these things?” the official continued, citing the economy, the border and the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
Polls show that Trump is ahead of Harris on economic issues.
A recent CNBC poll found that Trump outperformed Harris on economic issues by a 2-to-1 margin. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans said they would do better if Trump were in office, while only 48 percent of Democrats said the same of Harris. Among independents, 31 percent said Trump would do better on economic issues, compared to 10 percent for Harris.
In terms of national support, the gap was much smaller: The poll showed Trump leading 48% to 46%.
The Trump campaign is particularly focused on appealing to “persuadable” voters – voters who are more independent and less connected than the typical MAGA supporter, but who still genuinely care about the economy and issues that directly affect their quality of life.
These “persuadables” are why Trump records podcasts, attends MMA events and does music interviews with people like video game streamer Adin Ross, who is popular with his 18-year-old son, Barron.
“There’s a reason we do podcasts. There’s a reason we do Adin Ross, there’s a reason we do all this stuff. You know, these people are interested in MMA, Adin Ross, okay. That’s the reason we do this stuff,” the Trump campaign official said.
As for the states the campaign is focusing on, it is eyeing the key swing states. Campaign officials said: “As long as we hold North Carolina, all we need to win is Georgia and Pennsylvania” to reach the 270 electoral votes needed.
Going forward, the Trump team wants to make sure voters don’t forget that Harris is the incumbent and that she was not removed from Biden’s ticket. They are also waiting for Harris to hold a press conference because, as another Trump official said, Harris “can’t talk” just as Biden can’t “walk.”
“At some point she will have to answer a question,” said the first Trump official.
The former president held a more than hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday afternoon, in part to attack Harris, who had not given an interview since succeeding Biden.
The Trump team said it would continue to portray her as a “radical liberal” and that she was the “status quo” while Trump was the change. For the Trump team, Harris’ choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as vice president “reinforces the narrative that Kamala Harris is a dangerous liberal.”