Donald Trump isn’t going to be taking part in his trademark rallies until after the Democratic National Convention ends on August 22.
The Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon said he’ll resume traveling at that point, at a rambling press conference Thursday.
Trump was asked by a reporter why he hadn’t been campaigning this week, to which he replied, “Because I’m leading by a lot and because I’m letting their convention go through and I am campaigning a lot.”
When the reporter asked if Trump would increase his travel, Trump said, “After their convention, yeah.”
When another reporter compared Trump’s schedule to Harris’s, Trump got defensive, saying, “What a stupid question.”
???? TRUMP: "What a stupid question!”
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) August 8, 2024
Reporter slammed by Trump for questioning his campaign schedule.
“What are we doing right now? She's not doing a news conference. Know why?... she's not smart enough.” pic.twitter.com/2TxT7yAWcM
Trump’s light schedule is in stark contrast to Vice President Kamala Harris’s and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s. Harris announced Walz as her running mate in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and the pair have since traveled to rallies in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. They will travel to Arizona Friday and Nevada on Saturday.
Even J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, has kept up a busy schedule, following the Harris campaign in visits to Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday and traveling to North Carolina on Thursday. In contrast, Trump has only visited Montana, a solid red state, this week. So why is Trump taking the next two weeks lightly? It was quite different in 2016, when Trump held seven different rallies between August 9 and 13 in four different states.
Usually, the last three months of a presidential campaign are a sprint, with candidates rushing to make stops in critical areas after their party’s convention. Is Trump taking it easy due to his age or even cognitive issues? His press conference was all over the place, and to many, it indicated that Trump is not well. Would he be able to handle a rigorous schedule if he returns to the White House?
