Trump scrambles to counter Kamala Harris for swing state voters

While Trump’s often-incendiary rallies once provided a “feast” for TV networks, Navarro said, “Trump doesn’t need feast now. He needs votes, and the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences between him and Kamala Harris that will swing voters in key battleground states”.

And former Trump adviser David Urban, now a political strategist with the BRG Group, urged the Republican candidate to attack Harris for wanting to diminish gun ownership rights, push for a single-payer health care system and also ban fracking (which she has since U-turned on, due to its unpopularity in Pennsylvania).

“Talk about the issues. If we make this about personalities or crowd size, we’re going to lose and you see that in the polling,” he said.

The calls come after a new poll released over the weekend by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business found that 42 per cent of voters say they trust the vice president to handle the economy, compared with 41 per cent who say the former president would do a better job.

The result represents a seven-point jump for the Democrats since the last time the survey was taken in July when President Joe Biden was the candidate, and the first time in nearly a year that the party has had an advantage on the issue over Republicans, who have traditionally been viewed as better economic managers.

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Harris will start to outline her economic platform later this week. Her first campaign pledge on the issue was unveiled at a rally in Nevada, where she infuriated Trump by adopting his policy not to tax hospitality workers’ tips – an issue pertinent to the many workers in and around Las Vegas.

While Trump branded her “copycat Kamala”, the Culinary Union said the vice president had always championed hospitality workers.

“She stood by us as we negotiated and won the best union contract ever, and we trust her to continue the progress of the Biden-Harris administration by delivering real results that will prioritise and protect working families,” said union secretary-treasurer Ted Pappageorge.

There are still three months until election day, but the latest polls are a sign of how much Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign and endorse Harris has upended the race.

A New York Times/Siena poll released last week, for instance, showed Harris overtaking Trump in the key battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, albeit within the margin of error.

But Trump has struggled to form a coherent strategy against Harris since Biden stepped down, prompting concern within the party that time is running out to define her among undecided voters.

In a bid to rebuild the momentum he had in the days after he was almost assassinated – when the Republican National Convention was more united than ever – Trump on Monday returned to the former Twitter social media platform, now known as X, for the first time since August of last year.

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It was also only the second time since January 8, 2021, when his account was suspended due to concerns about potential incitement of violence after the January 6 attack at the US Capitol.

The Trump campaign has also placed $US37.2 million in new ad spending across seven battleground states which, according to tracking company AdImpact, is the most his campaign has reserved on TV ads in a single day this election cycle.

The bulk of that money – almost $US24 million – will be spent in Georgia alone, in a sign of just how much effort the party is placing on wresting back the Deep South state from the Democrats.

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