Trump trying to sell himself as 2020 rebel President launches reelection bid with familiar themes
ORLANDO, Fla. — Jabbing at the press and poking the eye of the political establishment he ran against in 2016, President Donald Trump officially kicked off his reelection campaign Tuesday with a grievance-filled rally that focused more on settling scores than laying out his agenda for a second term.
Addressing a crowd of thousands at the Amway Center in Orlando, Trump complained he had been “under assault from the very first day” of his presidency by a “fake news media” and “illegal witch hunt” that had tried to keep him and his supporters down.
And he painted a disturbing picture of what life would look like if he loses in 2020, accusing his critics of “un-American conduct” and telling the crowd that Democrats “want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it.”
The apocalyptic language and finger-pointing made clear that Trump’s 2020 campaign will probably look a whole lot like his improbably successful run three years ago. While Trump’s campaign has tried to professionalize, with shiny office space and a large and growing staff, and despite occupying the Oval Office as America’s commander-inchief, Trump nonetheless remained focused on energizing his base by offering himself as a political outsider running against Washington.
And he appeared eager for a rerun of 2016, spending considerable time focused on former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whose name elicited “Lock her up!” chants, even though she is not on the ballot.
“I have news for Democrats who want to return us to the bitter failures and betrayals of the past. We are not going back. We are going on to victory,” Trump said.
Trump spoke fondly of his 2016 run, calling it “a defining moment in American history.” And he said he had fundamentally upended Washington, staring down “a corrupt and broken political establishment” and restoring a government “of, for and by the people.”
Of course, Trump never really stopped running. He officially filed for reelection on Jan. 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration, and held his first 2020 rally in February 2017, in nearby Melbourne. He has continued
“I have news for Democrats who want to return us to the bitter failures and betrayals of the past. We are not going back. We are going on to victory.” — President Donald Trump
holding his signature “Make America Great Again” rallies in the months since.
Trump is hoping to replicate the dynamics that allowed him to capture the Republican Party and then the presidency in 2016 as an insurgent intent on disrupting the status quo.
But any president is inherently an insider. Trump has worked in the White House for 21⁄2 years, travels the skies in Air Force One and changes the course of history with the stroke of a pen or the post of a tweet.
That populist clarion was a central theme of his political adventure, as the businessman-turned-candidate successfully appealed to disaffected voters who felt left behind by economic dislocation and demographic shifts. And he has no intention of abandoning it, even if he is the face of the institutions he looks to disrupt.
He underscored that on the eve of the rally in the must-win swing state of Florida, returning to the hard-line immigration themes of his first campaign by tweeting that, next week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement “will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.”
That promise, which came with no details and sparked Democratic condemnation, seemed to offer a peek into a campaign that will largely be fought along the same lines as his first bid, with very few new policy proposals.
Early Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said Tuesday that Trump’s politics are “all about dividing us” in ways that are “dangerous — truly, truly dangerous.”
But those involved in the president’s reelection effort believe that his brash version of populism, combined with his mantra to “Drain the Swamp,” still resonates, despite his administration’s cozy ties with lobbyists and corporations and the Trump family’s apparent efforts to profit off the presidency.
Advisers believe that, in an age of extreme political polarization in the United States, many Trump backers view their support as part of their identity, one not easily shaken.
They point to his seemingly unmovable support with his base as evidence that, despite more than two years in office, he is still viewed the same way he was as a candidate: bombthrowing political rebel.
“He said he’d make America great again and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Vice President Mike Pence said in his introduction.