President Donald Trump is barnstorming the country with near-daily rallies ahead of next month’s midterm elections, but a former senior campaign aide who helped plan his past events says they no longer pack the punch they once did, NBC News reported.
“I don’t think they’re getting the same thing anymore,” the former aide said. “Some of that has to do with how they’re doing it, what feels like a haphazard nature to it all.”
The former aide said the rallies’ biggest value had always been Trump’s “ability to just suck oxygen out of a race for a time period,” with wall-to-wall local coverage of his arrival, his speech and the aftermath.
These days, Trump is often speaking in smaller venues, staring out at empty seats and watching attendees filter out before he finishes. In San Antonio, he did not come close to filling the 11,000-seat Freeman Coliseum. In Vandalia, Ohio, he spoke in a high school gym.
Trump “seems to understand that his star has dimmed some,” NBC reported, noting he has increasingly leaned on celebrity guests, including Kid Rock, Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, former NFL coach Jon Gruden, pro wrestler Kane and baseball great Roger Clemens, whom Trump promised the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the stage.
The president’s appearances have also created headaches for the candidates he is trying to help. In Ohio, Trump defended data centers, an issue the National Republican Senatorial Committee has warned could doom Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign against Democrat Sherrod Brown.
“Go out and vote,” Trump told the crowd, “even if you hate Jon Husted, even if you hate Vivek Ramaswamy.”
In Texas, Trump called Senate nominee Ken Paxton a “pain in the ass” at a rally in Denton. Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term, has stayed away from both of Trump’s Texas rallies this month.
Even some of the faithful are skeptical. At a packed rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, attendee Austin Schnitzler said he doubted Trump would follow through on his promise of $5,000 checks for every American if Republicans hold Congress.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Schnitzler said. “He does a lot of talking.”
Republicans are counting on Trump to drag reluctant MAGA voters to the polls as they brace for a potential Democratic wave. But JW Wintersteen, a former finance chair of the Texas GOP, warned that the party’s reliable base has shrunk.
“The size of the high-propensity-voting Republicans has become slimmer,” he said.
White House officials did not respond to NBC’s requests for comment.
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