Trump's 2024 vulnerability: Boredom
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Trump at Madison Square Garden. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty
Former President Trump's 2024 campaign was far more united and on-message than the previous two installments, until the candidate's restlessness sparked private feuds and very public scandals, according to a deeply reported account from the Atlantic's Tim Alberta.
Why it matters: Alberta depicts a campaign at war with itself and a candidate who might just throw away the White House through repeated acts of self-sabotage.
Between the lines: This is a coin-flip election, and Trump could easily move back to Pennsylvania Avenue in January. But Alberta's reporting casts light on the friction that's likely to follow him into the White House if he does.
Driving the news: A few weeks before President Biden dropped out of the race, Trump told aides he planned to start calling his opponent a "retard," Alberta reports, adding that aides "pleaded with Trump not to say this publicly."
- In Alberta's telling, that was a sign that Trump — who then looked firmly on course for the White House — was unsettled and unhappy.
- Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Axios that calling Biden the slur was "never discussed" and unnecessary as his "mental decline was clear for the world to see."
- Alberta quotes Trump at a fundraiser remarking of his campaign's much-discussed message discipline: "What's discipline got to do with winning?"
- After Vice President Harris replaced Biden, Trump's team — led by veteran GOP strategists Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita — advised sticking with their game plan and letting Harris' momentum wear off.
- That lasted a couple of weeks. Then Trump questioned Harris' Blackness in an off-the-rails interview — one that foreshadowed much of what would come in the next three months.
Behind the scenes: By then, Trump's lead in the polls had evaporated. He blamed Wiles and LaCivita and considered getting rid of them, Alberta reports (Cheung denied that).
- Trump brought in Corey Lewandowski, his pugnacious 2016 campaign manager, known for his "let Trump be Trump" approach.
- Lewandowski immediately embarked on a power struggle that splintered the campaign and spilled into the press, Alberta writes.
- Trump was also listening less to his campaign chiefs and more to trusted allies such as Kellyanne Conway, Alberta reports.
Zoom in: Wiles advised Trump against bringing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to his debate with Harris, then on to New York for a commemoration of 9/11 (which Loomer had called an inside job), before giving in.
- In Alberta's telling, Wiles started conceding to friends that she and LaCivita were no longer in control.
- In LaCivita's case, things would get worse when he and Trump argued about a report that LaCivita was making millions from the campaign, Alberta reports. (Cheung called the report about LaCivita "wildly inaccurate" and LaCivita has denied it.)
- Morale continued to deteriorate and many campaign staffers who once hoped to work in a Trump White House have now decided they're "done with the chaos of Donald Trump," Alberta writes.
The intrigue: Campaign insiders leaked all of this to Alberta right before a crucial election that polls suggest their candidate has a good chance of winning.
What they're saying: "This campaign team has gone through hell and back, from the countless legal witch hunts by the Kamala-Biden justice system, to multiple assassination attempts, to a political coup to replace Biden in the middle of an election. This team has never been more close and more focused to help send President Trump back to the White House," Cheung told Axios in a statement.
- He blamed Alberta's report on "no-name cowardly sources" who wanted to hurt Trump and help Harris.
The bottom line: Senior officials in the first Trump administration spent much of their time trying to knife one another.
- Alberta's reporting on the campaign suggests a second Trump White House would likely function much the same way.
Go deeper: Read the full Atlantic piece.
