An overly confident Trump team indulged in a campaign luxury that could prove a critical liability on election night, a new political analysis contends.
Former President Donald Trump's campaign is seriously concerned about running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) now that President Joe Biden has opted to step aside from the 2024 election, the Atlantic reported Monday.
"The selection of Ohio Senator J. D. Vance as Trump’s running mate, campaign officials acknowledged, was something of a luxury," writes staff writer Tim Alberta, "meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nailbiter."
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Trump's supporters were shocked that Biden chose to abide the calls from his own party that he step aside from the election after a disastrous debate performance raised concerns about his age, according to the report.
The reasoning was reportedly based on an old ethnic stereotype.
"More than anything," Alberta writes, "Trump’s allies believed that the president’s stubborn Irish ego wouldn’t let him back out of a fight with a man he despised."
Conservative confidence fueled a manic energy at the Republican National Convention where Vance mounted the stage and claimed his party's nomination for vice president, Alberta writes.
But Republicans optimistic that their winning streak would run from July through November were met with a brutal check when Biden stepped aside.
"In many ways, the convention scene was one of a party peaking too early," writes Alberto. "With Biden appearing to dig in, they left Milwaukee believing that this run of luck might never end. The president’s abrupt exit dashed any such fantasy."
Now Republicans are fretting about the prospect that Vice President Kamala Harris will take the reigns and claim as her running mate someone who can deliver what Vance cannot — undecided voters in powerful swing states, the Atlantic article concludes.
"For a campaign that went to bed Saturday believing it would dictate the terms of the election every day until November 5, Sunday brought an unfamiliar feeling of powerlessness," Alberta writes.
"For the first time in a long time, Trump does not control the narrative of 2024."
