Trump insiders say there is no need to shake up a sputtering campaign, even as pressure mounts on campaign manager Brad Parscale for a poor turnout at Saturday’s rally in Tulsa and weeks of disappointing polls.
The president was said to be furious when he arrived in Oklahoma to discover that sparse attendance meant an outdoor event had to be canceled. And as the evening went on, his first rally in three months was overshadowed by headlines about empty seats.
Campaign sources told the Washington Examiner that Parscale was under intense scrutiny but that his job was safe for now.
“Parscale surprised everyone in 2016 when digital turned out to be so important,” said one campaign adviser. “But he’s something of a political novice, and the messaging and strategy are all over the place.”
The rally had been seen as a key moment for drawing a line under months of crisis, a time to deploy the campaign’s biggest asset and begin the business of defining Joe Biden as a hostage of the Left and a politician who had betrayed U.S. workers for decades.
Instead, coverage was dominated by rows of empty seats and questions about a sputtering campaign.
Officials blamed concerns about COVID-19 and the threat of violent protesters for keeping families away. And they said an anti-Trump campaign led by teens on TikTok had inflated expectations of crowd size.
But they disputed figures given by a local fire marshal that only 6,200 people attended, saying that about 12,000 people passed through the magnetometers at the BOK arena.
“There’s no need for a major shake-up,” said a source close to the first family. “It was an unfortunate situation, but in the grand scheme of things, it was irrelevant.”
“The record amount of online livestreams of the rally indicates that the attendance wasn’t due to lack of enthusiasm, and I think it’s more likely than not that the next rally will be sold out,” the source added.
Texas businessman and Trump donor Doug Deason said he had been invited to the rally but stayed away out of caution over the coronavirus and concern about violent protests. He watched it on TV instead.
“I thought he was awesome, maybe best ever, and the press is making a much bigger deal out of the size of the crowd than his supporters are,” he said.
The president’s press secretary denied reports he was furious at the way the rally unfolded while campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said more than 11 million people had watched the rally online and that the president was “eager” to hold more rallies.
“Brad has built an amazing team and is doing a great job,” he said. “He has a strong 10-year relationship with the president and the Trump family.”
The president is due in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday for an event at a 3,000-seat arena.
The questions about the campaign come after weeks of questions about the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and explosive street protests. Some national polls give Biden a double-digit lead.
Veteran operatives say the campaign is making basic errors, such as promising too much and delivering too little in Tulsa.
Republican communications strategist Rick Tyler said President Trump’s messaging was muddled.
“They’ll go to Phoenix, they’ll do a smaller rally, but he still lacks the message of what it is that’s going to convince a plurality or majority of people in swing states that they should give him another chance,” he said.
Sam Nunberg, a veteran of Trump’s 2016 campaign, said: “The Trump campaign continues to commit political malpractice every day it is not making massive national and local TV buys.”
But changing strategy or personnel would make little difference at this stage, according to conservative commentator and author Matt Lewis.
“If you brought in the next Karl Rove, some brilliant strategist, it would be a moot point,” he said. “Trump is not going to listen for long. He’s not going to change his style.”
