Donald Trump has only visited one battleground state since Super Tuesday because he can’t afford to campaign.
Joe Biden has been to every top battleground state but one since the Super Tuesday primaries. He has also been on unannounced calls pushing negotiators toward a Gaza ceasefire, among other official White House duties.
Donald Trump has held one rally in a battleground state in those two and a half weeks, and shifted another to Ohio, in part to save on costs. He has also played in two golf tournaments at his Palm Beach golf club, among other activities at his club, like lunches with potential campaign donors that aides feel are about to start paying off big.
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Aside from his ongoing court appearances, which he’s chosen to make, Trump has remained almost entirely behind closed doors in Palm Beach, trying to drum up his lagging campaign fundraising and strategize about how to pay the $454 million bond he’s been ordered to pay after the judge in his New York civil fraud trial found that he and his company had lied about their assets for years.
Trump has been outraised by President Biden by a margin of almost 4 to 1, but it is not just money. Biden has been much more active than Trump. The President has been crisscrossing the country, announcing everything from infrastructure investments to new manufacturing projects to student loan debt relief. It seems like Biden has been everywhere in recent weeks, including delivering the State Of The Union and working on a ceasefire for Gaza.
Biden has also been holding campaign events in states such as Georgia, Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
In contrast, Donald Trump barely campaigns one day a week. He usually holds events on Saturdays, and venues for those events have gotten smaller and cheaper. Gone are the days when Trump would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a big rally. Trump’s recent speech in Ohio was not even a Trump campaign event.
Trump can’t afford to campaign. The Trump campaign tried to end the Republican primary early because they didn’t have the funds for a long and contested primary.
Joe Biden makes news every day, while Donald Trump is holed up in his club playing golf and trying to figure out how he is going to pay a $454 million bond.
Only one candidate is campaigning right now, and it isn’t broke Trump.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association