President Trump’s reelection campaign has launched a mobile app, a one-stop shop of campaign organizing tools designed to engage and train supporters.
The tool simplifies voter outreach with guides on how to make fundraising calls and mobilize friends and neighbors, with easy access to virtual and in-person events as the campaign looks to solidify and grow its reach in time for November.
“Maybe even some Democrats are looking to join the winning team,” suggests Deputy Communications Director Ali Pardo in a video on the app.
In a separate video soliciting Election Day help, Principal Deputy Communications Director Erin Perrine puts out a call for volunteer poll watchers.
“We all know that the Democrats will be up to their old, dirty tricks on Election Day to make sure that President Trump doesn’t win. We cannot let that happen. That is why our goal is to cover every polling place in the country,” Perrine says.
By sharing news updates from the app (1 point) and signing up new users (100 points), supporters can earn reward points for perks such as a “Picture with POTUS” (100,000 points) and items in the Trump campaign store.
Among the updates is Trump 2020 communications chief Tim Murtaugh’s Tuesday night statement on the president’s surprise tweet announcing a pending executive order to limit immigration.
There is content targeting the president’s presumptive Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden: “HERE’S THE DEAL: Joe Biden Isn’t Being Honest With America’s Workers,” and “YIKES: 5 Times Joe Biden Proved He’s Not Up For The Job (Just Yesterday).”
The list also includes a rundown of the administration’s coronavirus response timeline, starting on Dec. 31 with China’s update to the World Health Organization on its discovery of COVID-19. The campaign’s summary notes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director, Robert Redfield, contacted his counterpart in China and offered to send U.S. experts to aid its investigation on Jan. 3. Redfield then followed up on the offer two days later before issuing a CDC travel advisory for Wuhan, China.
Republicans hope Trump can make the case that the blame for the pandemic and its fallout lies with China, and the timeline arms supporters with details to help make this case.
“This is your source for real news, not fake news, straight from the campaign and the president himself,” a narrator said in a Twitter video shared by campaign manager Brad Parscale on Wednesday that promoted the app. “This is your direct line to give input on key campaign issues, your portal to register voters, host MAGA meetups, your scheduler, your application on becoming a Trump team leader.”
The app requires users to share their cellphone numbers to get started, followed by a prompt for a home address and other personal details. These are hugely valuable to campaigns as they look to bring new supporters to the polls.
“By the time I’m done with that, I will at least be able to identify you on a voting basis in the upper 90 percentile. We’ll see. We might find new people here in addition to the current profiles that we haven’t been able to test before,” Parscale told CNN in an interview. The campaign can match the information collected to the Republican National Committee voter file, which has data for over 200 million people and aids persuasion efforts.
“The data we’ll get from that is great, especially finding voters that don’t show up in polling information, what I’ve always called the hidden Trump votes,” he said.
The campaign discussed plans earlier this year to build a 2-million-person volunteer “Army for Trump,” shortly before the pandemic brought in-person events to a standstill, moving campaign events online. The new app is likely to add fire to an already substantial digital campaign infrastructure.
In a sign of how campaigns have pivoted in the wake of the virus, nightly broadcasts one can register for with the app are the new normal: “Join millions and get a front-row seat to our virtual events. Watch Team Trump every night at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.”
