Fresh off a week of daily counterprogramming events and an effort to steal the spotlight from his new opponent, Donald Trump and his campaign are seeking to harness that pace in the lead-up to November — with plans to aggressively ramp up the former president’s schedule, hone his debate skills and cultivate a new ground-game strategy tied to the early voting states, sources familiar with the strategy shift told CNN.
Through November, Trump is expected to hold “several events each week, if not daily,” one adviser said, while another predicted the former president will regularly visit two states in a day.
“Think Trump on steroids,” one said. “It’ll be all hands on deck.”
While Trump was always expected to escalate his campaign activity after the conventions, the heightened pace goes well beyond previous preparations and is a direct response to the enthusiasm spike from Democrats since Harris replaced Biden atop their ticket, sources familiar with the plans told CNN. Trump’s schedule this week is a clear example.
On Monday, the former president will address the National Guard Association’s conference in Detroit; on Thursday, he will travel to Michigan for a speech on the economy before participating in a town hall in Wisconsin that evening. On Friday, he will hold a rally in Pennsylvania, then head to Washington, DC, to speak at the “Joyful Warriors” summit, held by the conservative Moms for Liberty group.
Trump’s accelerated schedule also follows a trying stretch of his campaign. The former president’s erratic response to the change in opponent set off a wave of discussions about the strategy for the new reality. Close allies cautioned Trump to focus on policy over personal attacks and urged him to get in front of voters more often.
Moving forward, Trump will focus on battlegrounds where mail-in ballots will soon go out and early voting locations will first open, including in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as states tilting toward one party or the other, such as Minnesota and Florida. The Trump campaign also plans to bolster its teams on the ground in those states, as well as to deploy surrogates to hold get-out-the-vote events.
