McClatchy DC: “Trump’s advisers in the final weeks of the campaign, mapped out more dire possibilities showing ways their candidate could lose key states like Florida and still win reelection by conquering a series of Upper Midwest states. One scenario has Trump losing Florida and Arizona but still receiving 270 electoral votes, the minimum needed to win. The other shows Trump losing North Carolina and Florida and receiving 272 electoral votes.”
“‘Now, by no means do we think the president is not going to carry Florida,’ director of battleground strategy Nick Trainer cautioned reporters during a recent virtual briefing in which he presented the potential election maps — including two that had Trump losing Florida. Campaign manager Bill Stepien immediately jumped in to reiterate: ‘Let me say it again: The president will win Florida.’ Without Florida’s 29 electoral college votes, Trump would be completely reliant on a trio of Upper-Midwest battleground states he narrowly won in 2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and would need the electoral votes of at least one additional battleground state he previously lost, such as New Hampshire or Minnesota, in order to win a second term.”