Former President Donald Trump has been showcasing the strength of his political motor, bouncing among rallies, TV hits and podcasts over the campaign’s closing weeks.
The strategy of flooding the zone through his nonstop action has sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the room, making it more difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris to get out her garbled message and cast him as unfit for the job.
“We have gone 52 days in a row, and I am going 14 more days,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday at an event in Florida, where he noted Ms. Harris didn’t have any public events slated for the day. “You have 14 days left until the presidency and she is taking a day off. This is not what you want. This is not what you want.
“You know why? She is lazy as hell and has that reputation.”
Over the past 10 days, Mr. Trump, who at 78 would be the oldest president if he prevails and serves a full term, has held more than 10 public events and a half-dozen interviews.
The strategy, including briefly working a McDonald’s drive-thru in Pennsylvania, has helped Mr. Trump drive the campaign conversation and put Ms. Harris on her heels.
“While Kamala Harris hides in safe spaces and dodges the press, President Trump and Sen. [J.D.] Vance have barnstormed the country, maintained an aggressive campaign schedule with rallies and town halls in battleground states, and sat down for numerous interviews with traditional and specialty media outlets,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “It’s no surprise that President Trump is leading in battleground states — voters see that the Trump-Vance ticket, as well as our campaign surrogates, are meeting people where they are and talking about the issues that matter, like lowering costs, securing our border and restoring peace through strength around the world.”
Ms. Harris had a pair of interviews scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump, fresh off a three-stop swing through North Carolina, was holding a morning roundtable with Latino supporters in Florida before heading back to North Carolina for another rally.
Ms. Harris and her allies have tried to use Mr. Trump’s age against him since mental capacity concerns led President Biden, 81, to drop out of the race.
Ms. Harris and her team are pressing Mr. Trump to release medical records and questioning whether his unorthodox political style is a sign of his mental and physical decline.
“His team is saying that he is suffering from exhaustion,” Ms. Harris told reporters late last week, adding that has been an excuse for skipping out on interviews and another debate. “You know, look, being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world, and so we really do need to ask ourselves if he’s exhausted from being on the campaign trail. Is he fit to do the job?”
Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris are locked in battles in the swing states that will decide the Nov. 5 election.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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