The video of former President Donald Trump falling to the ground and then rising from under a pile of Secret Service agents with blood running down his cheek, raising his fist in the air and shouting “fight, fight, fight” is one of the most compelling clips in modern American political history.
Captured moments after he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin in June, it embodies Trump’s carefully constructed narrative that he is strong enough to face any enemy, domestic or foreign, on behalf of his Make America Great Again -agenda. . A still image has appeared on merchandise and has become iconic among its followers.
And yet the film sits idly in the can, unused thus far in the long stretch of his campaign to return to the Oval Office. His advisers refuse to publicly discuss whether his final ads will include clips of the assassination attempt, but they are well aware of the powerful video in their hands.
A shift to the personal narrative could distract from substantive issues that Trump aides believe give their candidate an edge over his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Polls show a tight battle between seven battleground states to determine the winner of the Nov. 5 election, and Trump is expected to begin his final plea to voters at a rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The burning question is whether Trump will ultimately break his own pattern and stick to the message.
“Kamala has failed over the past four years and only President Donald J. Trump can solve the problems facing our nation,” Trump senior campaign adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement accompanying closing arguments. “That also applies to inflation. This also applies to the border. This also applies to the chaos we see at home and abroad.”
An NBC News poll of registered voters this month labeled the race a dead heat, 48% to 48% nationally. That represented the high for Trump in eight polls since June 2023 — the first six against President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race in July, and a one-point loss for Harris since September.
Trump scored better among voters on the three “I’s” his campaign has built on — immigration, inflation and Israel — while voters rated Harris higher on a range of issues and characteristics, including handling abortion and health care and being “competent and effective ‘. .”
Although most voters do not cast their votes on foreign policy issues, Trump blames Biden – and by extension Harris – for the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
“Under Harris’ time in the White House, the strength of our nation has been squandered,” said a Trump campaign adviser. “Iran is richer and is financing chaos and terror in the Middle East. Ukraine and Russia are still at war, and China is more emboldened than ever. Harris has broken our position on the world stage. President Trump will solve this by using strong diplomatic, military and trade policies to restore peace and stability.”
Trump has been faithfully pointing out his differences with Harris on those big three issues at his campaign rallies, leaning on his pledge to impose tariffs on foreign competitors to strengthen the U.S. economy — an idea that many economists say would raise prices for U.S. consumers .
“With your vote this election, I will end inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals into our country, and I, as your president, will bring back the American dream,” Trump told a crowd in North Carolina on Tuesday. “We’re going to bring it back. Our country is being crippled and destroyed by Kamala Harris. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Campaign aides celebrated Trump’s recent achievements in a sometimes testy interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, where he defended his support for tariffs and accused the Biden administration of “spending money like drunken sailors.” The economy, in particular, is a natural place where Trump’s team feels he, as a longtime entrepreneur, is in a strong position to push his agenda, a campaign adviser said.
But there is a tension between the emphasis Trump’s campaign has placed on these issues and his desire to move into different territory. As Election Day approaches, he has taken major detours away from the substance — ramping up personal attacks on Harris and other Democrats, sprinkling his speeches with profanity and musing on off-topic topics like the size of the genitals of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer.
On Tuesday, he suggested, without evidence, that Harris is campaigning under the influence.
‘Does she drink? Is she on drugs?’ he said. “Don’t know.”
At the same time, voters are seeing a new ad produced by Trump’s campaign team that pairs Harris with Biden, the president of a country that most voters think is heading in the wrong direction. It uses a video of Harris on the television program “The View” saying that there was “nothing that comes to mind” when she was asked what she would have done differently than Biden.
“Nothing will change with Kamala,” says a narrator. “More weakness. More war. More prosperity for illegal immigrants. And even more taxes. Only President Trump has cut taxes on the middle class, and only President Trump will do it again.”
Brad Todd, a Republican strategist who does not work for Trump, said the spot “does a great job of channeling the overarching current that could push him over the line” by arguing that “America is on the wrong track and you should can’t keep doing that’. the same people in charge.”
The question, Todd said, “is whether he can stick to a message that is so conventional” or whether he will just stir up “people who already vote for him” with red-meat rhetoric.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
