Former President George W. Bush senior adviser Karl Rove encouraged President Trump’s reelection team to reboot his campaign.
Rove, who labeled June as “catastrophic” for Trump, urged the president’s campaign team to “admit that a reset is needed” in a Wall Street Journal opinion article published Wednesday. However, he also argued that it is not too late for a mix-up to help the president win a second term because “the campaign hasn’t really begun.”
“A reset is a presidential address on new policy initiatives or a significant change in tone that allows the White House to say credibly that the country is moving in a new direction, repositioning the president,” he said.
“Finding an issue that grabs public attention is only the start. No president gets reelected saying only, ‘I’ve done a good job.’ Last week, Sean Hannity asked Mr. Trump about his second-term agenda. The president dodged, perhaps not wanting to lay it all out on cable TV. But the moment is fast approaching when Mr. Trump must describe what comes next,” he continued.
Rove suggested that one of the policy initiatives the campaign could hone in on would be the Democrats’ decision to block Sen. Tim Scott’s police reform bill because it did not accomplish everything they wanted in the legislation.
He also noted that the moment for Trump to detail what he wants to accomplish in four more years in the Oval Office is on Aug. 27, when he accepts his party’s nomination at the convention. He pointed out that each of the last three presidents to run for reelection used that stage to focus on what they hoped to do if reelected.
