Trump's Capitol Hill allies fume at his unfocused candidacy
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Former President Trump at an antisemitism event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 15. Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
Former President Trump's apparent inability to stay on message is grating on some of his Republican allies on Capitol Hill, who worry the 2024 election is slipping away from their party.
Why it matters: Republican lawmakers fear that an unfocused campaign could doom their chances of winning control of Congress — a concern voiced by the leader of the House GOP's campaign arm in a call with colleagues on Thursday evening.
- "Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the most left-wing ticket in history," National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said on the call, according to a source familiar with his comments.
- "If we aren't disciplined in repeating that message — we could lose this country."
State of play: Weeks after replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris has momentum that shows no sign of diminishing.
- Polls continue to show Harris running competitively and even slightly ahead of Trump in key swing states while enjoying more enthusiasm from Democratic voters than Trump has from his party.
- Harris' surging strength comes as Trump has engaged in a series of unfounded and perplexing personal attacks on Harris, claiming she "became a Black person," dismissing the crowd at one of her events as AI generated and claiming Biden will stage a "comeback."
- Those comments were in spite of Republican leaders urging their party to stay focused on attacking Harris on issues like immigration and casting her and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as left wing.
What we're hearing: "I hear a great deal of frustration from supporters," one House Republican told Axios of Trump's campaign rhetoric, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about their party's presidential nominee.
- "We are all hoping that he will focus more," added the lawmaker, who, like most other Republicans in Congress, has publicly endorsed Trump.
- Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a Trump endorser who is fighting to hold onto a district President Biden won in 2020, said Harris' progressive Senate voting record "should be the message every day."
- Another House Republican told Axios of Trump's current dark spot: "If he doesn't have message discipline, and he doesn't focus on the sh*t we need to be focused on right now, it's not going to pass."
Between the lines: A third House Republican acknowledged there was "initially" frustration within the GOP conference about how Trump has approached the fight against Harris, but that it has gotten "a little better."
- "He's showing some return to issues," the lawmaker argued.
- Still, asked if they expect Trump to stick to that strategy, the House Republican noted the ex-president's trademark unpredictability: "He will until he doesn't. Then he will again."
- Hudson said on Thursday that even as enthusiasm has shifted toward Democrats, the overall electoral environment is largely unchanged, according to a second source on the call.
The other side: The Harris campaign doesn't expect the leftist attacks to stick, a campaign source told Axios.
- The campaign is leaning into Harris' background as a prosecutor and Walz's as a hunter, veteran and high school football coach to deflect those attacks, the source added.
The bottom line: From late June to mid-July, Republicans looked on jubilantly as Democratic lawmakers worried openly that Biden would doom his party's chances of winning either chamber of Congress.
- Now with Biden off the ticket, that dynamic appears to have reversed itself.
