Trump likes to sound like a winner: he’s gonna win so big you’re not gonna believe it. In fact, of course, he’s lost more races than he’s won. He won by a squeaker in 2016, but he lost in 2020, and most of his candidates lost in 2022. He’s not a horse you’d put big money on. And he’s not running a focused campaign that has the feel of inevitable victory.
Partly that’s due to his word salads, which this column covered here. But partly it’s because he simply can’t stay on message. Here are comments from a number of people, some of whom undoubtedly want him to win.
Gerry Baker (Wall Street Journal columnist): “Trump himself doesn’t seem to be helping matters. He spent much of the last few weeks pursuing what can best be described as some of his pet themes, is Harris really Black? . . . Are the crowds at Harris’s rallies being enhanced by artificial intelligence?”
Larry Kudlow (conservative columnist): “Don’t wander off, don’t call her stupid and all kinds of names, stay on message.”
Kellyanne Conway (former White House senior counselor): “The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see: it’s fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast.”
Kevin McCarthy (former House Speaker): “Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position.”
Unnamed House Republican (per Axios): “I hear a great deal of frustration from supporters. We are all hoping that he will focus more.”
Unnamed House Republican (per Axios): “If he doesn’t have message discipline, and he doesn’t focus on the sh*t we need to be focused on right now, it’s not going to pass.”
Don Bacon (R-NE): Harris’s progressive Senate voting record “should be the message every day.”
Brendan Buck (former aide to Paul Ryan and John Boehner): “It’s not that he’s not talking about the economy; it’s not that he’s not talking about the border. It’s that he’s talking about all these other crazy things as well that distract you.”
Alex Castellanos: “Trump is campaigning like a cornered animal. Late-night tweets, boiling with rage, are back. He attacks the Republican governor of Georgia and his wife.”
Megyn Kelly (conservative pundit): “I mean it was like he rambles, he goes on too long, at his rallies and in these exchanges, and at his presser the other day to where you get kind of bored, you lose the thread, you lose interest, which is not something you’re used to with Trump. Trump in 2016, he was tough to lose interest in, and I think that’s probably an age-related change.”
What should Trump be doing? Attacking Harris (and Walz) on all the obvious points—and not letting the Democrats create a whole new— and wholly fake—candidate.
• She’s a San Francisco politician. In a just world—which we don’t live in—that should be dispositive.
• She cast the deciding vote on the Bidenomics bill that has caused so much economic hardship to so many Americans. What more do you need to know?
• She wants price controls for corn flakes. (An old anti-Soviet joke went: What happens when the Soviets take over the Sahara Desert? Answer: Soon there’ll be a shortage of sand. If Kamala wins, there’ll be a shortage of corn flakes.)
• She is hugely responsible for the border mayhem crisis—and the murders and rapes that have ensued.
• She picked for her running mate a man whose values are as far from normal middle Americans as they could possibly be: he has lied about his drunken driving and military service; he wants boys in girls’ bathrooms and tampons in boys’ bathrooms; gender “transition” surgery for kids without telling their parents (you can’t make this stuff up); and free healthcare for illegal aliens. Shall we go on? Talk about weird! To normal Americans, he’s a nutcase.
That is not the America most Americans want to live in. Americans should be scared. Very scared. Trump needs to remind them how scared they should be.
If Trump can’t focus, and skip all the garbage he’s been spewing recently, he will lose. And so will we.
So what should JD Vance do?
Go for broke. This is the moment JD Vance has not been waiting for; but opportunity, and duty, don’t always call ahead.
Vance should go to Trump and lay down the law: “Stay focused or I’m outta here. Cut out all that irrelevant stuff, e.g., stop beating up on the governor of Georgia, for Heaven’s sake: he’s supporting you!” (Sotto voce: “You jerk!”)
That may sound harsh, but that’s the kind of language Trump understands. And probably not only understands but appreciates. He’s a tough guy.
Obviously, If Vance quits, it’s curtains for Trump—but not for Vance. He’s young and has a whole career ahead of him. It will show him as the toughest of the tough—just what you’d expect of a United States Marine. Semper Fi! Always faithful—but not to this or that person… only to the country.
Semper Fi! Go for it, JD.
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Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.
Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.
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