US President Donald Trump has acknowledged the problems of his re-election and that he is close to losing elections, amid his declining popularity and stark warnings from his allies, and Trump is fully aware that he will lose, after the assurances he received from some of his strongest allies that he is on his way to be president for only one term. The president, in particular, has reached this bleak realization in recent days, according to several people close to him who have spoken to Politico.
Trump has suffered what his aides described as his worst tenure in office, as he has been widely criticized for his handling of the Corona pandemic, and ethnic unrest erupted across the country. His electoral rally in Oklahoma, at the end of last week, the first since March, was disappointed, as he was greatly embarrassed when the number he expected had not reached his supporters.
And he betrayed the expression in answering the questions of "Fox News" host, Sean Hannity, on Thursday. The advisers were surprised when Trump presented a capricious and inconsistent answer to a simple question about his goals for a second term. Meanwhile, the president, who appears self-confident, gave a tacit admission in the interview that he might lose, when he said that Joe Biden “will be your president, because some people don't like me, maybe.”
It is still too early
In the hours after the interview was broadcast, many members of his inner circle remained questioning whether Trump really intended that implicit recognition, in relation to his bid for re-election.
Trump may have time to rebound, and the political environment for him can improve. However, interviews with more than six people close to the president confirmed that he was in urgent need of correcting the path, and that Trump was repeatedly undermining himself.
"With the current track, President Trump is approaching the edge of the worst electoral defeats in recent presidential elections, and the worst history of a president today," says Sam Nunberg, a former Trump political adviser who remains supportive of him.
Nonberg mentioned the national polls published by CNBC and The New York Times last week, which showed that Trump receives less than 40% support, compared to Biden.
Nonberg added: If Trump's numbers drop to 35 percentage points over the next two weeks, he "will face, realistically, the loss of more than 400 votes in the elections, and he must reconsider strongly whether he wants to continue running as a Republican presidential candidate."
Behind the scenes, Trump and his team are taking steps to correct the path. In the week after his electoral rally in Tulsa, he reluctantly admitted to being left behind, according to three people familiar with his thinking. Trump began gathering strength again days after the Tulsa rally, to play a more practical role in the election campaign, and he agreed to add more people to the team. Finally, he held meetings to focus his efforts on some states. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who oversees the campaign effectively from the White House, is expected to play a more active role.
Trump's supporters blamed the failure of the Tulsa rally on his campaign manager, Brad Parskall. Some of his supporters criticized the boast that Parskall had shown that a million people had requested tickets, and that claim fell when thousands of seats remained blank during Trump's speech.
Pascal has been the target of some of Trump's allies, who say the campaign lacks a coherent strategy and direction. But those close to the president insist that Parskall did not make a mistake. Whereas, after visiting the campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia a few months ago, Trump told his associates that he made a good impression about the campaign's organized work.
Parskall, who previously worked as a digital strategist, has received some reinforcements in recent weeks, when Trump has given his long-term advisor, Bill Stephen, additional responsibilities in the campaign, including working with political director Chris Carr and the National Republican Committee on voter turnout. Trump also reinstated the 2016 campaign's veteran, Jason Miller, to work with him as chief political strategist, a position he had never held before.
Republican concerns
But these domestic moves have done little to allay Republicans' concerns about the president's personal performance. Trump's favorite Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, issued an explicit warning in his program this week that the president "may lose this election." South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, another close ally of Trump, told reporters that the president should make the race "more political, less personal".
Trump's team insists that the president's numbers will improve, by escalating public events and intensifying attacks on Biden. People involved in the campaign say they will use a method to defeat the former vice president, that he is loved by liberals, who want to get rid of law and order.
In Trump's first presidential campaign, veterans liken their current ordeal to the nightmare they faced in the summer of 2016, when Trump exposed a set of self-scandals, ranging from his criticism of the Gold Star family to his attack on a federal judge of Mexican descent.
"There were similar doubts in 2016, and if those doubts were strong, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House now, rather than Trump," says Trump campaign spokesman Tim Morto. He adds: "Joe Biden is the weakest Democratic candidate for a generation, and we are now four months away from the elections, and in the end it will be a clear choice between President Trump's amazing record of achievement, and Joe Biden's half-century failure in Washington, DC."
However, Trump's advisers concede that defeating Biden requires a level of discipline, not shown by the president. They pleaded with Trump - who used his Twitter account to discredit his critics, from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, to his former national security adviser, John Bolton - to stop delving into disputes that did not mean much to voters.
Advertising campaign
Trump's campaign organizes a massive TV ad campaign against 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden, targeting his brainpower and political career that he has practiced for nearly five decades. Hoping to make progress, the Trump campaign is exploiting African-American voters, and the campaign is displaying ads critical of Biden, for his central role in the 1994 Crime Bill.
The commercials are broadcast in a group of states, including Georgia, a traditional democratic state, in which the Trump campaign was suddenly exposed to Saddam. It is expected that the cash donation campaign on television broadcasts will continue in a group of major states during the elections.
Trump advisers concede that defeating Biden requires a level of discipline, which the president does not demonstrate.
They pleaded with Trump - who used his Twitter account to discredit his critics, from MSNBC's host, Joe Scarborough, to his former National Security Adviser, John Bolton - to stop delving into disputes that did not mean much to voters.