His opponent may have changed mid-campaign, but time does not wait for Donald Trump to adjust, and the former presidents seems to be fully aware of that fact. Despite having spent months—or years—honing its ground game, messaging, and strategy to defeat Joe Biden, the Trump campaign now has to quickly pivot to get Kamala Harris in their sights. And it seems as though they’re moving quickly.
Since Biden’s sudden withdrawal, and with Harris looking more and more like the heir apparent for the Democrat nomination, Trump has already started emphasizing his criticisms of the Vice President, whom he characterizes as being more-or-less the same as Biden on most points…but more radical. His campaign has, for example, already released a video pointing out that she is the Biden Administration’s official Border Czar, and that the crisis at the border—which is one of the big issues in this year’s campaign—is, in no small part, her responsibility.
Trump’s first campaign rally since President Joe Biden withdrew his bid for re-election happens on July 24 in North Carolina—one of the handful of critical swing states whose results will decide the Presidential election. There he is expected, for the first time, to turn his full rhetorical focus on Harris. The fact that the former President is spending his precious campaign time in North Carolina is being seen as evidence that he is worried about the possibility of losing the state to Harris—ironic, considering that his team is also putting a good deal of work into turning dependably blue states purple. Minnesota, for example, is on Trump’s itinerary for Saturday, July 27.
Trump has been cagey about his plans for a debate against Harris. He first said that he preferred that Fox News, rather than ABC, host the debate. Then, on a call with reporters on Tuesday the 23rd, he said he wanted to debate Harris several times but didn’t commit to the September debate that Trump had booked with Biden, and that Harris had inherited.
