“Unprepared and Uncertain” Trump’s Team Caught Off Guard by Biden Withdrawal Speculation”
Former President Donald Trump’s team was caught off guard this week by unexpected developments in the campaign, leaving them uncertain about how to respond, a CNN analyst reported Thursday. Calls for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race have taken the Trump campaign by surprise, reporter Alayna Treene told anchor Pamela Brown on Thursday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of discussion behind the scenes about how to deal with this,” Treene said. “They really are uncertain about how to move forward,” Treene suggested that this uncertainty is why Trump has recently intensified his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, as evidenced by a recent foulmouthed campaign ad using hot mic footage.
According to Treene’s theory, Trump’s campaign had not prepared to target anyone other than Biden. “They have spent months, over a year, really, building out their general campaign infrastructure, mining data, honing their data operation, and raising money,” Treene said. “All of that was geared toward a single person, going against Joe Biden.”
Treene explained that the campaign has been attempting to keep Trump quiet to allow the media to focus on Biden’s mental health. However, this strategy hasn’t stopped the former president from insulting journalists and political adversaries on the Fourth of July. Trump also couldn’t resist promoting calls for his outspoken critic Liz Cheney to face a “televised military tribunal.”
The unexpected state of affairs has left the campaign in confusion, Treene noted. “I got frantic calls from all corners of Trumpworld on Monday afternoon asking, ‘What’s going to happen?'” Treene said. “They’re trying to look now behind the scenes about how that may have to change for their own campaign.”
Trump’s campaign is scrambling to adapt to the possibility of Biden stepping down, a scenario for which they were unprepared. This uncertainty has led to internal discussions and a reconsideration of their strategy moving forward.