Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 8, 2024.
Joe Raedl | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he won’t attend any presidential rallies until after the Democratic National Convention, which ends on Aug. 22.
Speaking at a wide-ranging news conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump was asked why he wasn’t “campaigning this week.”
“Because I have a big lead, I’ve passed a convention, I’ve been campaigning hard,” Trump replied.
The reporter continued, “Are you planning to resume travel?”
“Yes, after their convention,” Trump replied, again referring to the Democratic National Convention, which runs from Aug. 19-22.
The pace and plans of Republican presidential candidates this August are significantly different from the schedule Trump had when he last campaigned in person in August 2016.
That month, Trump received 27 Noisy election rally When he’s not filling stadiums, Trump seems to live on his plane, flying between battleground states and fundraisers and giving interviews by phone — all while running his family’s real estate business.
In contrast, President Trump has held just one rally so far this month.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s Democratic rivals, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Mr. Trump and his Republican running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, have all been touring battleground states in the presidential election over the past week.
Harris and Walz first announced their partnership at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, before speaking at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. They are scheduled to travel to Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. All five states are hotly contested in November’s election.
For the past five days, Trump has been staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort, conducting telephone interviews and Podcastsand held an hour-long press conference there Thursday.
President Trump’s public schedule appears to support his stated plans to reduce travel to rallies in the coming weeks. Currently posted events The “Events” page on the Trump campaign website lists a rally in Montana on Friday that will likely benefit Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy in part.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 8, 2024.
Joe Raedl | Getty Images
Sheehy is hoping to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in November, and Trump’s appearance is a big boost for him. Could energize the Republican Party? In a deep red state.
Trump will attend a campaign fundraiser while in Montana, before stopping in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday for another fundraiser before returning to Florida.
CNBC reached out to the Trump campaign, which confirmed that the Republican candidate has no plans to resume large, in-person presidential rallies until after the Democratic National Convention.
“President Trump has a packed travel schedule next week, including rallies, messaging events and fundraisers, and he has held more campaign events than he has in previous years. [Harris] “The combined total for Waltz is $20 million,” Trump spokesman Steven Chang told CNBC.
With less than 13 weeks until Election Day, Presidential election polls The statistically close race makes Trump’s decision not to mount a full cross-state campaign even more unusual — and could miss a key opportunity to connect with voters he needs to reach if he’s to win the November election.
Typically, the last three months of a presidential election Sprint to the finish lineIt starts with the party’s nominating convention in mid-summer and ends on a Tuesday in early November.
As a good example of how this sprint traditionally plays out, and how effective it can be, consider the 2016 White House campaign, which Trump won.
Eight years ago this month, Trump 20 rallies in over 12 states.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a rally at the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, on August 12, 2016.
Getty Images
Between August 9 and 13 alone, Trump drew huge crowds at seven major campaign rallies, including two each in the battleground states of North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania, as well as one in the Democratic stronghold of Connecticut.
Trump further added: Flip Florida and Pennsylvania In November’s election, Trump won two states that Democrat Barack Obama had won in 2012, as well as North Carolina, a state that Obama had won in 2008. As a result, Trump won a landslide victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In-person campaign rallies for both campaigns were largely canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far this month, President Trump Atlanta for the rally The day before, he attended a fundraising event in the Hamptons, an upscale beach area in New York state.
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA on July 31, 2024.
Elisabeth Franz | Reuters
Trump, who was the victim of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, has recently given only a few media interviews rather than attending back-to-back rallies as he did during his first campaign.
He was interviewed by the controversial influencer Adine Ross He called into Fox News’ morning show “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday morning and said in a livestream Monday that he would be interviewed next week by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, has a more visible role and a more traditional schedule on the campaign trail this month.
On his way to an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday, the Ohio senator defended Trump’s decision to abandon the August barrage, telling reporters that he and Trump were pursuing a “divide and conquer strategy.”
“One of the things that has to happen, of course, is to get out there and talk to people and to reporters,” Vance said. “The last thing that has to happen, of course, is to raise money, and I know the president is very busy doing just that.”
“Obviously, we’ll do events together,” Vance said, “but we’re going to take advantage of the fact that we have two people who can get out there and deliver the message.”
To counterbalance Ms Harris and Mr Walz’s campaign efforts this week, Mr Vance spoke in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday and was scheduled to hold two events in North Carolina on Thursday but postponed them because of tropical storm damage.
But none of Vance’s campaign events this week have been labelled as rallies, instead being held as “press statements” attended by only a small group of staffers, reporters and supporters.
