Outgoing republican president Donald Trump never took his presidency or his campaign seriously. He had very few campaign staff who had worked on reelection campaigns, instead relying on family and close friends to manage a campaign that went off the rails in the final months.
In a new report from Politico, the inner workings of the Trump campaign make it clear that there was no grounding in reality on how the coronavirus was going to impact not simply the campaign for reelection, but how it would impact campaign staff.
The fundraising operation also never coalased, with major donors questioning the people heading the efforts: influential republicans expressed doubt at the professionalism of finance chair Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s current girlfriend, who once offered to perform a lapdance for the attendee at a fundraising event who brought in the most funds.
Donors balked, and this led to major concerns about the financing available for advertising and outreach at the end of the campaign.
Even while then-campaign chairman Brad Parscale and republican National Committee Ronna Romney McDaniel warned Trump to take the coronavirus pandemic more seriously, Trump would hold press briefings in the White House, telling reports that the pandemic would miraculously go away and lying that vaccines and treatments were just around the corner.
Trump became furious with Parscale after his first rally of the summer, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sparsely attended and widely mocked. Trump blamed Parscale for the failure and for the bad reviews for the event, which likely led to a coronavirus hotspot in Oklahoma.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, started to take a larger role in the campaign, wanting his say in everything from finance to social media marketing. Kushner also pushed for personnel changes, including the ultimate replacement of Parscale by Bill Stepien in mid-July.
Parscale ended up having a drunken break down in Florida. Stepien, on the other hand, inherited a broken down campaign, rudderless and short on funds.
Stepien found a campaign that had no set strategy, no set plan, and no communication between various departments. A month before the republican National Convention, there was no schedule because even at that late date, five weeks before it was slated to start, Trump was insisting on a live, in-person convention, despite of the pandemic.
Quickly, a convention schedule was organized when campaign and Party leaders finally convinced Trump to hold a virtual convention, but speakers with star power were hard to come by, leaving key primetime slots to be filled with Trump family members.
The first night turned into a PR disaster, with Don Jr., seemingly under the influence of intoxicants, looking red-eyed into the camera, and his girlfriend, Giulfoyle, giving a speech that can be described as part evangelical/part Evita Peron.
The convention was panned by viewers and critics, particularly in comparison to the slickly-produced Democratic convention, making Trump angrier.
Trump’s key Super PACs, meanwhile, were also in disarray. Donors were not interested in handing millions of dollars over to organizations run by people like Dancing With the Stars alumnus Sean Spicer. That put the campaign further behind in advertising, causing them to eliminate ads in a cascade of states, including key battlegrounds, in the weeks leading to the election.
The caution wasn’t caused by just the staff; Trump’s behavior also startled key donors. His insistence for large rallies after his Tulsa debacle gave pause to many people, particularly after Herman Cain died of coronavirus weeks after been photographed, unmasked, in the Tulsa arena where Trump spoke.
Trump’s first debate performance was questioned: “The most fucked moment of the last 30 days was how everyone felt during the first debate. Why did Trump yell at Joe Biden for 90 minutes straight? No one knows,” one senior Trump official said.
As the campaign wore on and Trump fell farther behind Biden, tensions rose. No coordination was happening between the RNC and the Trump campaign. Advertising was gone. Trump was jetting around the country holding rallies, with places not recommended by campaign staff but in most cases, demanded by Trump himself.
In the end, Trump spent more than $1 billion on a losing effort, and he’ll likely continue to blame others. But in fact, his lack of leadership and foresight–as well as his disconnection with what was important for the electorate–led to his failure. He has no one to blame but himself.