The former deputy chief of staff for President Barack Obama revealed two things that he found surprising following Donald Trump's Thursday news conference — the distinct lack of MAGA signage and his apparent fear of failing on the campaign trail.
Jim Messina, former President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff, spoke with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday after Trump's press conference, in which Trump remarked he wouldn't hit the campaign trail this week due to the Democratic National Convention — which isn't scheduled to begin for a few weeks.
Wallace, a former Republican, noticed Vice President Kamala Harris completely ignored Trump's comments as the same old song and dance.
"She doesn't even mention the one bit of news he made, and the debates, [which] is to me, the greatest insult of all that the act is old and tired, not driving the conversation anymore," Wallace said of Harris' remarks at the United Auto Workers Union after Trump's news conference.
Read also: How is it possible Trump’s habitual incoherence caught top CEOs by surprise?
Messina called it "exactly the right thing to do." He explained that Trump's genius is in triggering people into taking his bait and switching the message to respond to all the "whackjob things." It gets candidates off message, and her campaign, he said, "are being incredibly disciplined, and it's making the case while he unravels."
While Trump mocked President Joe Biden in 2020 for hiding in the "basement" during the COVID crisis, now it's Trump who is nowhere to be found on the campaign trail, he noted — and there's no global pandemic.
"There are two campaign things that I've seen that make me surprised," Messina said. "First of all, at his lectern, there wasn't the Make America Great sign. He had the Mar-a-Lago Club sign, which is a super weird message to send. It also shows you the advanced team is not with him. He just got up there and did that. Because nobody thought that was a great idea."
His second point is he thinks Trump is afraid to fail at his next rally.
"He's not out there for another reason, which is his last event in Atlanta, which hit 6,000 people, and she had 15,000 people at the exact same arena," Messina said. "So he's right now screaming at his campaign team, 'Why are her events bigger than mine?' It's not 2016 anymore. He's been to these swing states a hundred times and his act is starting to fall flat, and people don't want to go see him."
See the full conversation below or at the link here.
- YouTube youtu.be
