Trump wrestles with 2020 balancing act
WASHINGTON – Part way through an 88-minute speech to Republicans at a black-tie fundraising dinner this month, President Donald Trump spent six minutes wondering aloud about the theme for his reelection campaign.
“Do I go with ‘Make America Great Again?’ Or do I go with ‘Keep America Great?’” he said, twice asking the crowd to clap for the slogan they preferred. (Results were inconclusive.)
“It’s hard. It’s the greatest theme in the history of American politics,” he said, referring to his 2016 slogan. “How do you give that up for a new one?”
The still unsettled question – Trump hinted “we may try and do both” – underscores not only Trump’s fixation with branding but also the tension in his quest for four more years:
This unconventional president, who depends on grievance to animate the electorate, needs to keep his core supporters riled up by emphasizing crises, real and contrived, while convincing swing voters that he’s made their lives better and kept his promises to fix things.
“In 2016, Donald Trump won the Oval Office because he was the candidate of change,” Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s campaign strategist, said during an interview in his Austin, Texas, office.
“Given that a majority of people today think the country is off on the wrong track, it will be difficult for him to win re-election if the message is just, ‘Look, I put us all in the right place.’ He has to both describe his next chapter of changes for the country while disqualifying his opponent as the wrong kind of change.”
Trump has time to finetune his pitch, with more than 14 months until Democrats nominate his opponent. And unlike four years ago, when he had to pay passersby outside Trump Tower to watch him descend an escalator and announce his campaign while insisting big donors were corrupting his opponents, he is set to run a second time with all the advantages befitting an incumbent: vast financial resources, no serious primary rivals and a larger, more professional campaign.
Operating out of a 14thfloor office building across the Potomac River from Washington in space last occupied by a hedge fund, Trump’s 2020 campaign team is building a more sophisticated operation than the president relied on four years earlier.
Shiny new flat-screen TVS hang from the walls in a war room area. Down the hall, workers are building a television studio where officials and surrogates will be able to conduct live interviews without leaving the office. Outside the windows of a massive conference room, the nation’s capital unfolds below with only one significant landmark out of view: the White House.
It is not the campaign apparatus of an underdog or outsider. But it exists to amplify the message from a president who, campaign advisers said, maintains “an insurgent mentality.”
“In 2016, his was the campaign of insurgency – he was the outside businessman who would go to Washington and disrupt things,” said Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director. “And I think everyone has to agree he has been a disruptor. The Washington establishment still doesn’t know what to make of him. And so I think he’s the same candidate today that he was in 2015.”
Marc Lotter, a former spokesman for Vice President Mike Pence who is now working as a communications adviser for the campaign, was part of Trump’s 2016 campaign, which he likened to a “guerrilla operation.”
“The difference here is there is going to be a juggernaut behind him,” he said, referring to the cash infusion from traditional Republican donors.
We asked local community members how they feel about the Mueller report and what they think should happen now.
Dustin Johnston, 19 Edgewater
Q: What do you think of the Mueller Report?
A: It wasn’t our business to begin with. There was never any evidence. It was a waste of taxpayer money.
Q: What did you think of the accusations about President Donald Trump colluding with Russia?
A: I thought it could be true, but now I see that it is just a witch hunt. Q: What should the president and Congress do? A: Everyone should just let it go. People are always going to try and find something on him but at this point he should just ignore it.
Virginia Monroy, 80 Wheatland
Q: What do you think of the Mueller Report?
A: I think it’s time to move on. To keep looking into it is a waste of time and money.
Q: What did you think of the accusations about President Donald Trump colluding with Russia?
A: I thought it was possible that it was true but at this point I’m just over it.
Q: What should the president and Congress do?
A: He’s not one of my favorite presidents so I really don’t care about his next move as long as it doesn’t affect me. Congress is a whole different story. The games are just getting ridiculous. Virginia Monroy, 80 Wheatland