https://www.axios.com/2024/08/11/trump-slump-assassination-attempt-2024-electionDon't buy the public bravado. Former President Trump's advisers are deeply rattled by his meandering, mean and often middling public performances since the failed assassination attempt.
They're pleading with him to adopt a new "hard-hitting" stump speech to define Vice President Harris as liberal and weak, advisers tell us. And praying he'll stop the recidivistic pull to simply improvise haphazardly.
Why it matters: Trump, who looked and felt like a clear front-runner heading into last month's Republican convention, has fumed, stewed and stumbled in private and public ever since.
Advisers are telling him Harris will grow her lead coming out of the Democratic convention, which begins a week from tomorrow — especially if they don't define her better, faster. Then just a week after the convention, it's already Labor Day.
What we're hearing: Republican sources close to Trump tell us he realizes he needs to bring new focus to a message that can be meandering and self-indulgent. But it's Trump. So a new script is often fictional wishfulness.
Trump "is struggling to get past his anger," a top Republican source tells us.
Trump's aides know he won't change. So they're focusing "not on the need for him to change but on the need to adapt his message to win," the source said. "But he has to convince himself to leave the other garbage behind."
"President Trump knows he's the only one who can end the media's honeymoon with Kamala Harris," a top Trump ally tells us, "and he sees a significant opening to do so with Harris' inability to defend her record on inflation and the border."
"To get past the media force field protecting Harris, however, he knows he needs to be very specific with his policy contrasts and is planning on debuting a hard-hitting stump speech very soon."
