Team Trump’s new tactic: keep out the crazies
Donald Trump’s indictment hasn’t fazed his re-election campaigners, who have set up a ruthlessly professional operation, masterminded by the strategist fired by his rival Ron DeSantis.
In a suburban diner in Iowa, the state where the first contest of the Republican presidential race will take place early next year, Donald Trump was working the room in a way that he never used to do.
“These politicians – they don’t want to take questions, they just read a speech,” the former president said to the 180 people squeezed into the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale earlier this month. He shook hands, grinned and answered their questions.
It was the sort of intimate setting where Iowa campaigns are traditionally fought but which Trump, 76, previously spurned in favour of huge rallies in front of his most loyal supporters.
However, seven months out from the start of voting, Trump’s presidential campaign feels different from his previous tilts at the White House, and following the latest legal woes heaped on his shoulders last week, it probably needs to.
On Friday federal prosecutors revealed details of 37 criminal charges against Trump, accusing him of mishandling hundreds of classified documents, including papers relating to US military plans and nuclear security, after he left office. The indictment states that he stashed the files around his Florida estate, with boxes piled in a shower, in his bedroom and in a ballroom.
It is too early for the polls to reflect the impact of the charges, which carry up to 20 years in prison. But before they were made public, Trump held a commanding lead over all of his rivals to become the party’s 2024 candidate.
If he succeeds in holding on to it, much of the credit will belong to an inner circle of veteran strategists who have been running a much more professional campaign than the chaotic 2016 and 2020 efforts, while recapturing his insurgent spirit.
Trump’s re-election team is motivated by loyalty but also a desire for revenge – not just against Joe Biden, who beat Trump in 2020, but also Ron DeSantis.
Four years ago the Florida governor made the fatal mistake of crossing Trump’s new de facto chief of staff, Susie Wiles. The resultant feud has become known as “Game of Thrones: Everglades”, after the Florida national park noted for its alligators and crocodiles.
While even those closest to him admit that the former president cannot be completely stage-managed and that “Trump will be Trump”, several innovations have sharpened things up. These include viral policy videos and in-depth “opposition research”, meticulously targeted to highlight positions DeSantis supported in Congress that are unpopular in specific early voting states. Arena and aircraft hangar rallies have largely been ditched in favour of small venues crammed with Trump’s most adoring fans, which makes for intimate social media clips suggesting a candidate in touch with the people. Trump then takes questions, to contrast with the defensive approach of DeSantis.
Not part of the campaign this time round are family members such as his daughter Ivanka, who missed the launch and issued a statement, saying: “I am choosing to prioritise my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.” Jared Kushner, her husband, has not been involved with the campaign since last year. Both held senior roles in his administration. Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman in 2016, left his orbit after objecting to his baseless claims of election fraud and the riot by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
Also missing are Corey Lewandowski, his abrasive first 2016 campaign manager; Paul Manafort, his second 2016 campaign manager who spent two years in jail for conspiracy to defraud and witness tampering before being pardoned by Trump; Steve Bannon, a divisive adviser facing trial for allegedly defrauding donors to pay for a private section of border wall; and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who dug for details in Ukraine on Biden’s son Hunter and also pushed Trump’s election fraud claims.
“It’s not drama-free but it is less dramatic,” said one source close to the current campaign. “Susie Wiles has kept the crazies out.”
Wiles, 66, is vastly experienced and has been described as “the most powerful Republican you don’t know” by The Hill website. She ran the Trump campaigns in Florida in both 2016 and 2020, earning credit for the surprisingly strong win against Hillary Clinton and then, against Biden, for making it one of the few states where Trump’s vote share increased.
In between she moved to DeSantis’s first campaign for state governor in 2018 at Trump’s suggestion, helping the little-known congressman carve out a narrow victory against the odds and igniting his own presidential ambitions. That was when they were all getting along.
But a year later came the break-up that, more than any other personnel decision, helps to explain why DeSantis is struggling to remain competitive even in his own state: he accused the highly discreet Wiles of leaking sensitive material to the press and fired her.
“DeSantis was trailing [in 2018] and everyone thought he was going to lose. Susie Wiles saved his campaign,” said Jim Clark, a senior politics lecturer at the University of Central Florida, who had a ringside seat. “Then he pushed her out and now she’s back with Trump. Got to be one of the worst political moves ever.”
Trump tried to engineer a rapprochement during a chance meeting at a 2020 campaign event, encouraging Wiles and DeSantis to “shake hands”. Neither would.
The former president has never stopped trying to woo back Kellyanne Conway, the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign – who knocked his dysfunctional 2016 team into shape after being appointed three months before polling day. Wiles runs things differently but just as effectively. Unlike Conway, now a Fox News contributor, Wiles never appears on TV and built her reputation as a behind-the-scenes fixer.
“Everyone talks about her brilliant organisational skills,” added Clark. “It’s going to be interesting to see if DeSantis can regroup in Florida without the woman who is clearly the secret ingredient. This whole thing could come down to March 19 of 2024, which is the date of the Florida primary. Clearly if DeSantis cannot carry his own state, no matter what he’s done in other states, it could be over.”
Alongside Wiles is Chris LaCivita, a strategist who was political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and in the 2020 election ran a Trump super political action committee advertising in key states. A former Marine wounded in the Gulf War, he was media adviser to the Swift Boat Veterans, a group that ran an effective smear campaign against the 2004 Democratic candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam War record.
Then there is the New York City native Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s chief pollster from the previous two campaigns. Fabrizio was once described by a Florida Democratic opponent as “flat-out one of the smartest dudes I know”.
Other 2016 and 2020 veterans who are still in Trump’s inner circle include Jason Miller, a political adviser; Steven Cheung, head of communications; Brian Jack, who was a White House political director; Dan Scavino, social media expert and former White House deputy chief of staff; and Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s aggressive counsel who got to know the family after befriending Trump’s son Eric at university.
“In 2016, his campaign was basically his family and a handful of operatives who wouldn’t have gotten hired by any of the other campaigns,” Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on the campaign of one of Trump’s rivals, Florida congressman Marco Rubio, told Axios.
“In 2020, it was an extension of the White House, which itself was a disordered mess,” he said. “This time around, he’s hired some real professionals and understands that the only way he wins the nomination for a third time is by running a very disciplined campaign.”
The words “disciplined” and “Trump” do not usually go together. He turns 77 on Wednesday and before that on Tuesday will appear in person in Miami federal court to be formally charged with endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defence documents.
So far the legal cases against him have only hardened Republican support. Can Trump really retain such a strong lead in the primary contest as the indictments against him mount up?
The team of battle-hardened pros he has assembled may be his best hope.
The Times
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