For Democrats this historic election is about one issue – Trump. Whoever wins the White House, it won’t be because of issues like high inflation, trillion-dollar annual budget deficits or the humiliation of Afghanistan. It’s going to come down to one simple but big thing – How many Americans love Vice President Kamala Harris and how many hate former President Trump?
Democrats know that if they can convince voters to hate Trump more than they hate high interest rates, higher taxes and the open border, Harris will win.
It won’t matter if she makes a fool of herself in a future interview with Jake Tapper, has a disastrous TV debate with Trump or never says an unscripted word to a journalist between now and election day.
Republicans, meanwhile, know that if they can convince more voters to love Trump, he wins. Trump is strong on the core Republican issues, and he already has the MAGA Nation in his corner. But to defeat Harris he needs to get millions of non-Republican voters to love him. He has to win over the independents, the suburban women and the conservative Democrats who’ve had their fill of Biden-Harris failures at home and abroad.
Only Trump can capture the hearts of the noncommitted. But to do it, he needs to make some serious changes. He needs to stop arguing like a teen-age boy over his crowd sizes. It’s stupid – and no one but him cares anymore. He has to stop calling Harris dumb. And nicknaming Harris “Lyin’ Kamala” is not the best way to endear yourself to voters who are still uncommitted.
Trump should let his 30-second campaign ads deliver the dirt and the insults, not him. He should hit her on how she blew it as the Border Czar. And he should constantly remind people how Harris lied to the public by pretending Biden was sharp as a tack – right up until he proved he was no longer capable of running for re-election.
But to win more love and affection, and the election, Trump has to tone down, lift up, soften and streamline his campaign style and his core message. He needs to realize it’s 2024 – not 2015. His rambling, folksy, 90-minute speeches no longer cut it.
Instead of feeding his addiction to his followers’ applause, he should be delivering punchy, 30-minute speeches that discuss the dinner-table issues people care about and talk about – inflation, illegal immigration, schools, war and taxes.
Nobody cares about tariffs. Nobody. Most people don’t even understand what they are. He needs to find a great speechwriter and become more like Reagan or JFK and less like Trump.
It may still make him feel good to be speaking to adoring crowds of 40,000 like it’s 2016 again. But if the uncommitted voter isn’t clearly hearing his message today, and isn’t deciding that Trump deserves a little love, he is going to lose. He needs someone to write him a short, sweet but powerful stump speech targeted at Republicans and the uncommitted voters the GOP needs. He should deliver it over and over again — and he should stick to what is written on the teleprompter.
Democrats had problems when Biden went off script. He would say things that would even make Nancy Pelosi cringe and force the White House to clean up his weekly gaffes. Well, Trump’s no different. When he goes off script, he makes a lot of faithful Republicans cringe. The uncommitted voters he’ll need to win in November are much less forgiving.
Michael Reagan, the son of President Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow @reaganworld on Twitter.
