Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is facing a wave of calls from Republican supporters to focus his political attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris on policy criticism and to tone down his ad hominem insults and conspiracy theories.
“The way forward is to focus on policy. Those are three words for the Republican Party that I think are a path to success: Focus on policy,” former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Tuesday. NPR.
“I think Donald Trump has a strong view on all of these charges, and I think he and the Republican Party would do well to focus on the opposites of policy,” said Ramaswamy, who endorsed Trump after withdrawing his own bid for the White House. House earlier this time. year.
“The winning formula for President Trump is very clear: It’s less insults, more ideas and that policy contrast,” Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump White House adviser, said Monday in an interview with Fox News.
Conway, who managed Trump’s victorious 2016 campaign, appeared with White House colleague Larry Kudlow, who also had some advice for Trump: “Don’t go around, don’t call her stupid and all kinds of names, stay in the message. “
Such calls from loyal Trump supporters have echoed in Republican circles in recent days as the party grapples with the new dynamic of a presidential race against Harris, three weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
As Trump tries to pivot, his talking points against Harris often turn into personal attacks. They include making false claims about her racial identity, insulting her intelligence and commenting on her appearance. He has also promoted false conspiracy theories about the crowds at Harris’ massive rallies.
“When Trump attacks Harris personally and not on policy, Harris’ support among swing voters, particularly among women. It’s just a fact of life, right now,” said Peter Navarro, a former Trump aide to White House, on the conservative WarRoom podcast. Monday.
Navarro is a staunch ally of Trump, who recently served four months in federal prison for defying a congressional subpoena in the investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“You have to make this fight not about personalities,” said the former Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy he said earlier Monday in an interview with Fox News. “Stop questioning her crowd size and start questioning her positions.”
Trump’s campaign has dismissed the idea that the former president has not focused enough on political attacks.
“President Trump railed against Kamala Harris for over two hours yesterday in a record-breaking conversation at X Spaces,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chung said in a statement to CNBC, referring to the former president’s conversation with Elon Musk on Monday night.
“He talked about how weak, failed and dangerously liberal he is [Harris]-The Walz ticket is the most radical in American history. In every single speech, President Trump lays out his bold vision for this country through his America First agenda and contrasts the [Harris’] dismal track record of skyrocketing inflation, uncontrolled borders and rampant crime in American communities,” he added.
Focusing on Harris’ positions is difficult, in part because she has yet to define them. Harris has not released an official policy platform, but said over the weekend that her campaign plans to release one in the coming days.
Still, Harris’ entry into the race has sparked a burst of excitement among Democrats, marked by record donations, major poll gains and arena-sized rally crowds.
Trump has long been fixated on crowd sizes, both his own and his opponents’, and sees them as a measure of political momentum.
Harris drew crowds of more than 12,000 people at each of her five rallies last week, according to her campaign. It is a feat with few parallels in modern US politics.
On Sunday, Trump falsely accused Harris of using AI technology to create photos of her supporters gathered around Air Force Two to Michigan on August 7 for a rally. The news media quickly verified that the crowds were real with video footage and dozens of photos from the scene.
At a press conference on Thursday, Trump claimed he was drawing “10 times, 20 times, 30 times the size of the world” than Harris.
During that hour-long press conference, Trump falsely said Harris’ rise in the polls was due solely to her gender and again questioned her racial identity.
The comments did not sit well with Gerard Baker, the influential Wall Street Journal editor and a staunch conservative who has supported Trump in the past.
“By my count, about a third of Mr. Trump’s remarks fall into three categories: false, obtuse, or crazy,” Baker wrote in an op-ed Monday.
Trump has not signaled that he intends to change tactics.