Donald Trump was looking to take back the spotlight with a blitz of activity to kick off the final stretch of his campaign. But the former president’s biggest obstacle may be himself.
Donald Trump had a busy week.
In a whirlwind of activity during the days following the Democratic National Convention, Trump sought to regain the spotlight, shore up military support, refute liberal arguments made at the DNC, and define his political opponent. Analysts disagree on whether he was successful.
Ford O’Connell, Republican political analyst, and former Trump White House surrogate described it as a “crazy week” and says with less than 70 days before the election, voters are seeing the “final stretch Trump.”
“He’s going to be everywhere all the time in those battleground states. And he is going to be everywhere all the time trying to make sure that he is winning the message each week between the two candidates, because remember, early voting begins Sept. 6,” he says. “And I think one of the things – and the Trump campaign will tell you this – they know it is a jump ball.”
Here’s a look at this week’s ups, downs, and everything in between:
Arlington and Space National Guard
On Monday, Trump laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery to honor service members who died during the Afghanistan War withdrawal. Monday marked three years since the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Initially, the coverage of Trump’s attendance was mostly positive, but NPR reported shortly after that members of Trump’s campaign had an altercation with an Arlington employee over photos. A Department of Defense official said Trump’s campaign was warned before the event about not taking photographs due to the sensitive nature of Section 60, the section of the cemetery largely reserved for service members killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Additionally, cemetery officials said federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries. The Trump campaign countered that the photographer was permitted and they were at Arlington at the invitation of Gold Star families.
“The parents, sisters, and brothers asked me to go to Arlington and I did,” Trump said at a rally. “While I was there, they said, ‘Could you take pictures with us?’ and I said ‘Absolutely.’ And I did.”
Hans Noel, associate professor of government at Georgetown University, said the photo op at Arlington may have worked against Trump.
“The Arlington event was more about trying to highlight the Afghanistan withdrawal, which Trump wants to tie to the Harris campaign by way of the current administration,” he says. “It’s not really about military families, and I think it may have backfired with many of them, who care a lot about decorum at Arlington.”
Later in the day, Trump promised the National Guard Association, a lobbyist group, that if reelected he would create a Space National Guard for the Space Force branch of the military. The idea got a hearty approval from the guardsmen in attendance but has faced opposition in the real world as states, governors and the military branches themselves have fallen short of consensus over the path forward for such a reserve service.
Endorsements and Indictments
On Monday, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat-turned-independent who once served in the National Guard, threw her support behind Trump. She joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another life-long Democrat-turned-independent, to endorse the former president.
“Having two Democrats, two die-hard Democrats say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go with Donald Trump this time’ sends a big message,” O’Connell says.
Noel counters that current Democrats aren’t likely swayed by Kennedy and Gabbard, but the move shows Trump is open to more than just MAGA Republicans.
“Trump wants to portray himself as broadening his support beyond his base, and former Democrats like Kennedy and Gabbard might help with that,” Noel says. “But neither of them has much credibility with Democratic voters, and they have not for much time.”
Ultimately, the endorsements may not make a difference on Election Day. Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University, says the effect of Trump’s recent endorsements is likely “negligible” since at least three battleground states said Kennedy will remain on the ballot. North Carolina is the latest state to turn down Kennedy’s request to remove his name from the ballot, joining Michigan and Wisconsin.
“RFK not getting off the ballot is not going to help very much,” Belt says. “The reason for that is, when you have that third-party alternative on there, those people will still vote, even if it does feel like they’re throwing away their vote. They still want that alternative, and they want to register their dissatisfaction.”
Alongside the endorsements, came new (kind of) indictments from special counsel Jack Smith’s office in Trump’s election subversion case. Prosecutors filed a revised indictment that reframes the four original counts against Trump.
The new indictment is an effort to bring the criminal charges into line with the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling earlier this year, which found that presidents have immunity for official acts but not for unofficial acts. It does not, for example, include allegations that Trump tried to weaponize the Justice Department – a charge the high court specifically batted down in its ruling.
Abortion and IVF
Trump and his running mate, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, made a concerted effort this week to neutralize an issue that Democrats hope will rally voters to vote left in November: abortion and reproductive rights. During an interview, Vance said Trump would veto a national abortion ban if one were passed by Congress, likely to the chagrin of Trump’s pro-life base that is looking to advance abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its constitutional guarantee of access to the procedure.
Then on Thursday, Trump said he would make in vitro fertilization treatments free if elected president.
“I am announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment fertilization for women,” Trump said at a rally. “We will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes.”
The issue became a thorny one for the GOP this year after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring embryos created through IVF treatments to be children under state law. Many Republicans scrambled to distance themselves from the implications that the ruling held for the popular procedure, though some religious groups took the opportunity to denounce it. Democrats have accused Republicans of seeking to open a new front in the war over reproductive rights as they navigate a campaign season in which the GOP is vulnerable on the issue.
Belt suggests that Trump is “trying to have it both ways.”
“He wants to take credit for the overturning of Roe, but his political senses accurately tell him that people think Republicans have gone too far on this,” Belt says. “He wants to say it’s up to the states but at the same time distance himself from some of the worst of what’s going on in the states.”
Regardless, Belt says it’s unlikely Trump’s stance on reproductive rights will cost him any votes.
“I don’t think that the statement that he would veto a national abortion ban will cost him any of the hard right evangelical votes, because they were going to vote for him anyway,” he says.
The Kamala Conundrum
Trump is usually very good at defining his political opponents – think “Crooked Joe” Biden, “Little Marco” Rubio, and “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz – and concentrating his line of attack to substantiate those monikers.
But this week, Trump tried a variety of ways to define Harris – even going as far as reposting a remark that suggested she got her job through sexual favors. He has also floated “Comrade Kamala,” “Crazy Kamala,” “Laffin’ Kamala,” “Lyin’ Kamala” and “Kambala” recently.
“I think the multiple stabs in different directions suggest that Trump is trying to find a response to Harris, and he hasn’t landed on one yet,” Noel says. “That’s probably not a big deal, though, because he has until the debate, I think, to figure it out.”
The two are scheduled to meet for a Sept. 10 presidential debate set to be broadcast by ABC. Trump on Monday suggested he might skip the debate, pointing to what he described as the network’s “hostility” during interviews of certain Republicans. The Harris campaign promptly mocked Trump for trying to duck the vice president, and it remains to be seen whether they meet.
Belt says that Trump was caught off guard by Harris becoming the nominee, and he’s still trying to find his footing on how to best campaign against her.
“He’s tried a number of his nicknames for her and a number of different attacks. And I think he’s frustrated because nothing has seemed to stick,” he says. “Yet he keeps trying a new line of attack, and nothing seems to be working. And I think he’s starting to feel the pressure of time. He sees the polls are shifting away from him, and he’s worried that he can’t get it back.”
O’Connell said not only is time not on Trump’s side, but lack of policy specifics from the Harris campaign makes pinning down a rebuttal more difficult.
“The hardest part about Trump having to define Harris is, one, the media is not forcing Harris to speak on her own. And, two, it’s such a shotgun window period of time. It takes time to saturate the types of narratives that Trump usually lays down.”
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