President Trump launched a string of preemptive strikes at Joe Biden, calling him a threat to the American way of life, as he visited two crucial swing states in the hours ahead of the Democratic convention.
Trump, who has made distraction and counterprogramming a feature of his campaign style, landed first in Minnesota and then Wisconsin, where the much-reduced in-person portion of his rival’s convention is being held.
He used a speech in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Mankato, Minnesota, to brand “Slow Joe” as weak on jobs and soft on law and order. He railed against Biden’s 47 years in Washington and what he said was a record of backing free-trade deals that hurt workers.
A President Biden would keep families locked in their basements for months to come, he said, rather than rebuilding the country from its coronavirus-inflicted slump.
“Joe Biden would crush this unprecedented economic recovery,” he told an audience.
Trump campaign officials privately admit that they have struggled to make their messaging stick in the weeks since Biden became the presumptive nominee. At times, Trump has sent mixed signals, such as suggesting that his opponent is both weak and dangerous.
More recently, they have tried to combine those elements, saying that Biden is an empty vessel being exploited by the Left of his party.
Monday’s trip brought a fresh take, as Trump said the 77-year-old was running on a joint manifesto with socialist Bernie Sanders.
“He will kill the stock market,” he said. “He will kill everything that we are talking about today. He would also abolish immigration enforcement, abolish bail, abolish the suburbs, abolish effective policing, abolish American energy, and abolish the American way of life.”
Monday’s events were all held at airfields or airports, suggesting that the campaign has found a fix to one conundrum: how to let Trump deliver his trademark, barnstorming performances in front of a socially distanced crowd. On each occasion, he was able to address a lively audience outdoors or in a hangar, rather than a busy arena.
On Tuesday, the president is due to arrive in Arizona, where he will attack Biden’s record on immigration.
Before leaving Washington, the president told Fox & Friends that Biden’s reluctance to appear in public left him with no choice but to take the fight out on the road as he tries to counter the media’s coverage.
“I don’t have the time not to,” he said. “And we have a guy that doesn’t come out of his basement that the media covers.”
As well as the explicit messages, campaign officials said voters would be sure to notice how one candidate was touring the country while another stayed close to home to deliver his convention speech.
Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for Trump 2020, said: “This week, Americans will see the stark contrast between a glitzy, over-produced, Hollywood-centric DNC and a President who isn’t afraid to speak directly to voters in the heartland about the issues they are facing, his record of success addressing those issues, and Joe Biden’s decades of failures.”
Monday’s states were carefully chosen.
Wisconsin had already taken on totemic status among staffers. Hillary Clinton’s failure to visit the state is touted frequently as evidence of the way her campaign took Midwestern voters for granted and allowed Trump to snatch it away in 2016.
And Minnesota, the epicenter of street violence following the death in police custody of George Floyd, is viewed as a potential pickup this time around.
The trip’s first event was an unannounced minirally at the airport in Minneapolis, where he was greeted by several hundred supporters.
He met the owners of a bar, an auto repair shop, and a pharmacy whose businesses were destroyed during street violence after Floyd died in the city.
“All they wanted was to live the American dream,” Trump said. “Their dreams were burned to the ground.”
He contrasted his visit and promises of support with what he said would be silence from the other side.
“At the Democratic convention this week, we will not hear a word about these innocent victims of the left-wing violence that’s taking place,” he said.
