Former President Donald Trump's team is attacking Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign event in New Hampshire with claims that out-of-state agitators are being "bussed" in to pad her numbers — and one political reporter believes it's not a good sign for Trump's confidence about competing there.
"Will the press covering Kamala's event today ask why she can't get any real New Hampshire residents to attend?!" Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt posted to X, accompanied by a text message she received from a "local New Hampshire radio host" saying that he is "getting messages from listeners" that "four buses full of people" from Massachusetts turned up at the rally.
Trump's other spokesperson, Steven Cheung, posted, ".@KamalaHQ is just one giant astroturf meant to gaslight voters into believing there is excitement to elect a dangerous liberal. The American people won’t and can’t be fooled!" accompanied by three bus emojis.
Political reporter Jake Lahut took to Threads to weigh in on the Trump campaign's commentary.
"There's nothing more quintessentially New Hampshire than imagining 'full busses of people' coming up from Mass., but it's most often evoked around voter ID laws and, frankly, losing campaigns," wrote Lahut.
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Nonetheless, he added, there's often a grain of truth to the accusation — not necessarily because campaigns actively bring in fake supporters from out of state, but because people naturally come in from states where campaigns rarely visit.
"You can throw a rock and hit someone from MA/RI/CT at any Trump rally in NH. Dems deal with the same thing, just ask any of the 2020 campaigns," he said. "There's a consistently high level of demand in the New England states for a 1-3 hour drive to get some facetime with a candidate."
This comes after the Trump campaign is reeling from the political fallout after a top volunteer said the campaign knows New Hampshire is "no longer a battleground state" and Trump will likely lose there by more than he did in 2020.
The Trump campaign immediately denied abandoning New Hampshire and kicked the volunteer out of their operation. Nonetheless, some Republicans in the state seem to privately agree with the assessment that New Hampshire may be out of play for Republicans at this point.
