Flying to South Carolina on Thursday to hold his 25th midterm rally this month, President Donald Trump and his political team made a decision, according to one of his advisers: Instead of holding an in-person rally this weekend in Kansas — a red state where Republicans appear vulnerable — Trump would deliver his closing argument there by telephone.
Hours later, another weekend rally in Iowa was also canceled. It was a sharp and sudden shift in the president’s closing strategy, which relied on whipping up enthusiasm among his base through a grueling campaign blitz of conservative constituencies.
When Trump returned from South Carolina, he told reporters that he didn’t “feel obligated to go to Kansas” because Republican Sen. Roger Marshall was “doing very well.”
The move came as a relief to some political operatives on the ground, who were happy to learn that Trump would engage in telerallies that tend to be more scripted.
“Thank God,” a senior Republican official told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the White House. “He hasn’t moved the needle anywhere.”
Less than 24 hours later, plans changed again. Rallies in Kansas and Iowa were back, both now scheduled for Sunday. And the frenetic pace that White House officials had signaled was coming to an abrupt halt was beginning to resume.
Speaking at the White House Friday afternoon, Trump said he had received calls from friends in Iowa and Kansas asking him to reconsider the cancellations.
“We have a few races that are very important,” he said. “And they said if you could go, it would be better than a telegram. And I tried to talk him out of it and said, ‘What about a telegram?’ But they asked me. So I’m going to do two on Sunday.
He also cited Saturday afternoon college football games as a reason for moving his events to Sunday.
Officials said the schedule was simply rearranged to give Trump more time to participate in virtual events. But people familiar with the matter described different motivations to CNN.
After approving the changes, Trump had become irritated by media coverage of his decision to cancel his final rallies, these people said. His irritation was evident when he returned from South Carolina and lashed out at a reporter who asked why he canceled the events.
“You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect,” Trump said when asked how he was feeling and if he was tired of campaigning. The reporter who asked the question, Trump seethed, looked “like hell.”
The president demanded that the rallies be reinstated, close sources said, sending staff who had just worked to remove the events from the calendar scrambling to get them back on.
“The gatherings are starting again! » read a statement confirming the change.
The episode only underscored how much of Republicans’ midterm prospects hinged on Trump’s personal whims, from support for his favored candidates — some of whom are now struggling — to his signature rallies, which regularly stray from the issues and talking points that many candidates have tried to emphasize.
Even some Republican candidates have struggled to keep up.
“I think I’m doing so well in the polls that he probably has better places to spend his time,” Marshall told reporters after Kansas’ cancellation was announced Thursday.
Trump’s advisers insist the president remains a sought-after presence on the campaign trail, and his political team continues to field calls from Republican campaigns asking whether he would visit their states in the sprint leading to Tuesday’s election, an adviser told CNN.
That’s what Trump officials offered as the initial reason for canceling his events this weekend: By skipping in-person events, Trump could maximize his time holding tele-rallies for candidates in several states. Several sources familiar with the planning did not contradict this rationale.
By Thursday evening, Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., had announced that the president would headline virtual events in 19 states intended to “energize voters, drive turnout and help win victories.”
The shift to virtual events has not been unwelcome in some Republican corners. During the 21 hours that in-person events were canceled, several GOP operatives in battleground states quietly expressed a sigh of relief that Trump’s roadshow would no longer take place in their states.
Many have pointed out that Trump is less likely, during telerallies, to venture into the arcane topics that now occupy much of his rallies: the cognitive tests he claims to have passed, the White House ballroom, the bodies of various Republican men.
A Republican official said the Trump rallies were taking up too much time during a peak period when Republican activists would otherwise be doing door-to-door, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote activities.
Trump at times pressed aides to plan more trips in the final weeks of the campaign, people who spoke to him said, invigorated by the adoring crowds he encountered in deep-red districts and encouraged by friends and advisers who told him his presence directly boosts Republican enthusiasm.
Yet at other times during this month-long storm, these people said, he lamented the frenetic nature of a tour that took him to a new city almost every day — often to rally voters in college arenas or civic centers that seem downright miniature compared to the sold-out stadiums he played in during his own campaigns. Trump has also complained privately, and increasingly publicly, about how difficult it is for him to work throughout the campaign for a campaign that is not his.
“I have to tell you a little secret,” Trump said at an Oct. 23 rally in a Florida arena that seats fewer than 5,000 people. “Outside there is a crowd about two or three times the size, and I looked at my people angrily. I said, couldn’t you have given us a bigger arena than this?”
Later, as Trump bragged about the economy, he joked that he was “wasting my time” with his speeches and should just go home and let his accomplishments speak for themselves — a phrase he repeated at subsequent rallies.
The president has visited almost every state on the Senate battleground map except Maine — multiple times. The White House’s initial decision to cancel weekend appearances in the Midwest generated enormous buzz but few complaints among party stalwarts.
“Everybody has seen the president who wants to see it,” the second GOP official said.
Trump will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., on Friday for a rally with Republican candidates for Senate and governor, and he is expected to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, where an annual Halloween party is planned.
Including Sunday’s events, Trump will have headlined 28 rallies since the beginning of October. Even he admitted that the schedule was tedious and that it had taken a toll on his voice.
“I don’t need to do this. But I have to do it because if (the Democrats) win the midterms, all of a sudden you’re going to see a collapse and all the bullshit we’re talking about,” he told a crowd in Kentucky this month. “That’s why I’m here working like crazy for you.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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