2020年，时任总统唐纳德·特朗普对乔·拜登总统的竞选日程提出了强烈批评，称他的活动日程安排和低出席率集会是在冠状病毒疫情期间遵循疾病控制和预防中心指导方针的结果“地下室运动“
现在，随着特朗普在筹款方面的落后和面临强大的法律时间表，拜登竞选团队正试图将任期倒向特朗普，因为他的法庭义务使他的竞选日程处于悬而未决的状态。
“竞选活动——就像你的对手在战场州坚持不懈地竞选一样——躲在你的地下室里难道不是组建一个获胜的选民联盟的好方法吗?”拜登-哈里斯竞选团队在上周发给媒体的一份备忘录中写道。
特朗普的法律日程仍悬而未决，因为他面临四项不同时间表的刑事审判。
特朗普将接受审判在4月15日陪审团开始选择时，他向斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付了封口费机密文件审判富尔顿县地方检察官法尼·威利斯提议将8月5日作为其2020年审判的开始日期佐治亚州选举干预案，他的生日还没有确定哥伦比亚特区联邦选举干预案。其中几个案件可能会被推迟最高法院权衡他的总统豁免权申请.
除了上周二在佛罗里达州的初选中投票特朗普上周没有任何竞选活动，只是打了几轮高尔夫球和举行了政治会议，因为竞选团队还在努力赶上拜登团队的筹款工作。现在，拜登竞选团队已经开始利用特朗普单薄的竞选日程，推出比本周期早些时候更强劲的竞选日程。
在拜登竞选团队最近加大努力之前的这个选举周期早些时候，特朗普在竞选活动中比拜登更频繁，在密歇根州和宾夕法尼亚州等多个大选战场州进行了竞选活动。与此同时，特朗普的共和党挑战者正在瞄准提前投票的州，而拜登正在专注于他的总统职责。
自从超级星期二以来，拜登和副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯一起在关键战场州巡回演讲在佐治亚州、威斯康星州、宾夕法尼亚州、亚利桑那州、内华达州、密歇根州和德克萨斯州举办了十多场活动。
相比之下，特朗普自超级星期二以来只举行了两场竞选集会:在佐治亚州和俄亥俄州。特朗普竞选团队取消了此前计划在亚利桑那州举行的集会，以取代俄亥俄州的集会，以宣传特朗普支持的参议院候选人伯尼·莫雷诺。
这次集会帮助莫雷诺赢得了初选;然而，特朗普的言论表明如果他不能赢得2024年大选，国家将遭受“大屠杀”创造了一周的媒体狂潮。
特朗普在批评海外制造业生产的活动中表示:“我们将对每一辆越过生产线的汽车征收100%的关税，如果我当选，你将无法出售这些家伙。”
“现在，如果我不能当选，这将是一场大屠杀...这将是最不重要的，这将是这个国家的一场大屠杀，这将是最不重要的。”
特朗普的竞选团队反驳了特朗普所说的如果他在2024年竞选连任失败将在全国范围内引发暴力的说法，辩称他说的是汽车行业的毁灭。
最近几周，特朗普因其在为数不多的几次露面中发表的言论而面临批评。上周，特朗普在描述如果他在2024年大选中失败，世界会变成什么样时表示，反犹太主义的比喻是犹太民主党人“憎恨”以色列，“应该为自己感到羞耻”-然后在评论上加倍下注。特朗普面临许多人的批评，包括拜登和参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默，后者是美国最高级别的犹太官员，也是以色列的一贯支持者。
本月早些时候，特朗普提出削减福利计划比如可能连任的社会保障和医疗保险，以控制数十万亿美元的国债。
美国消费者新闻与商业频道主播乔·克南问特朗普是否改变了他对如何处理福利的看法，并补充说:“总统先生，似乎必须采取一些措施，否则我们将永远被困在债务与(国内生产总值)之比的120%的水平上。”
“因此，首先，在权利、削减方面，以及在盗窃和权利管理不善、权利管理极其糟糕方面，你可以做很多事情，”特朗普回答说。
“你可以做的事情太多太多了，所以我不一定同意这一说法，”特朗普说。“我知道他们最终会削弱社会保障，因为这个国家很弱。”
特朗普竞选团队反驳了拜登对这些言论的批评，称他的话被歪曲了。特朗普竞选团队抨击拜登竞选团队分享了特朗普回答中的片段，而不是更长的交流。
去年早些时候，特朗普在竞选中也同样保持沉默，连续几周没有竞选活动，尽管他的2024年共和党挑战者正在早期各州积极竞选。然而，他大幅增加了在提前投票州的竞选日程，在艾奥瓦州、新罕布什尔州、内华达州和南卡罗来纳州连续举行竞选活动，尽管他的法庭日程安排相互冲突。
随着拜登踏上征程，特朗普竞选团队试图强调他所犯的错误，因为特朗普及其盟友对拜登的精神敏锐度提出了指控-拜登及其团队否认了这些指控。在本月早些时候发布的一则新竞选广告中，拜登承认自己年事已高。
“看，我不是一个年轻人，”拜登在广告开始时笑着说，直接对着摄像机说话。“这不是秘密。事情是这样的，我明白如何为美国人民做事。”
特朗普比拜登小3岁。
特朗普的支持者以及政治专家指出，特朗普的初选日程并没有影响他最终获得共和党提名的能力，他们认为他的竞选活动一直能够以其他方式成为头条新闻。
“竞选团队抑制了举办特朗普喜欢的大型集会以节省资金。但特朗普的名字仍然每天出现在美国所有媒体的头版。因此，即使他不参加活动，他的知名度仍然很高，”丹·埃伯哈特说，他是共和党的长期捐赠者，曾在罗恩·德桑蒂斯竞选总统期间担任州长的捆绑人。埃伯哈特说，他现在支持特朗普。
根据竞选财务数据，这一次特朗普的竞选团队在进入3月份时吹嘘有更大的4200万美元的战争资金。尽管如此，根据竞选财务数据，特朗普的竞选团队在竞选资金方面相对节俭，因为它试图建立一个可以与拜登和民主党手头的1亿美元现金竞争的战争基金。
“他还受益于远离聚光灯，每天必须回答记者的问题。埃伯哈特说:“这肯定没有在民调中伤害他。”
政治策略师查理·科莱恩表示，考虑到特朗普的竞选活动正面临资金短缺，而且他继续被法院束缚住，特朗普在获得共和党提名后没有进行太多竞选活动并不奇怪。
“我认为这是故意的，”科莱恩说，并补充说，他不认为特朗普最近几周在拜登加强竞选活动时缺乏竞选活动会损害这位前总统的竞选活动。
与2016年的竞选活动相比，特朗普在超级星期二之后的几次亲自竞选活动尤其引人注目。当时他在超级星期二后的两周内穿梭于全国各地，举行了十多次竞选集会，因为他仍在与共和党初选对手竞争。
“我认为你会看到更多这样的情况，”Kolean补充道。“当特朗普接受采访时，我认为它会受到更多的控制，有更多友好类型的出口。我认为当特朗普举行集会时，它会更具战略性。”
Trump's trials throw a wrench in his campaign schedule as Biden gets busy
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump was hyper critical of President Joe's Biden campaign schedule dubbing his sparse event calendar and low-attendance rallies, a result of following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic, a"basement campaign."
Now, as Trump lags in fundraising and faces a robust legal schedule, the Biden campaign is attempting to flip the term back at Trump as his court obligations put his campaign schedule in limbo.
"Is not campaigning -- as your opponent relentlessly campaigns in battleground states -- and hiding in your basement a good way to assemble a winning coalition of voters?" the Biden-Harris campaign wrote in a memo sent out to the press last week.
Trump's legal schedule is still up in the air as he faces four criminal trials with different timelines.
Trump will stand trialover a hush payment to Stormy Daniels beginning with jury selection on April 15, hisclassified documents trialis scheduled for May 20, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed Aug. 5 as a start date for the trial on his 2020election interference case in Georgia, and no date has been scheduled for hisD.C. federal election interference case. Several of the cases could be delayed asthe Supreme Court weighshispresidential immunity claims.
Aside fromvoting in the Florida primary last Tuesday, Trump didn't have any campaign events last week, playing rounds of golf and holding political meetings as the campaign also works tocatch up to Biden's team on its fundraising efforts. Now, the Biden campaign has begun to capitalize on Trump's thin campaign schedule with a more robust campaign schedule than earlier this cycle.
Former President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump arrives for a campaign event in Rome...Show more
Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this election cycle before the Biden campaign recently ramped up its efforts, Trump was on the campaign trail more often than Biden, hitting multiple general election battleground states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Trump's Republican challengers were zeroing in on early-voting states and Biden was focusing on his presidential duties.
Since Super Tuesday,Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris together have barnstormed across key battleground statesholding more than a dozen events in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Texas.
In contrast, Trump has only held two campaign rallies since Super Tuesday: in Georgia and Ohio. The Trump campaign scrapped a rally previously planned event in Arizona in lieu of the Ohio rally in order to boost Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.
The rally helped push Moreno into a primary victory; however, Trump's comments that there will be a"bloodbath" for the country if he doesn't win the 2024 general electioncreated a media frenzy for the week.
"We're gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not gonna be able to sell those guys if I get elected," Trump said at the event while criticizing overseas manufacturing production.
"Now, if I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath for the whole ... that's gonna be the least of it, it's gonna be a bloodbath for the country, that'll be the least of it."
Trump's campaign has pushed back on claims Trump was talking about violence throughout the country should he lose reelection in 2024, arguing he was talking about the destruction of the auto industry.
In recent weeks, Trump has faced criticism for comments he made during his few appearances. Last week, while describing what the world would be like if he lost the 2024 election, Trump said the antisemitic trope thatJewish Democrats "hate" Israel and "should be ashamed of themselves"-- and then doubled down on the comments. Trump faced criticism from many -- including Biden as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S. and a consistent supporter of Israel.
Earlier this month,Trump floated cuts related to entitlement programslike Social Security and Medicare in a potential second term in order to curb the tens of trillions of dollars in national debt.
CNBC anchor Joe Kernen asked Trump if he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlements, adding "Mr. President, it seems like something has to be done or else we are going to be stuck at 120% of debt to [gross domestic product] forever."
"So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting -- and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements," Trump replied.
"There's tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do, so I don't necessarily agree with the statement," Trump said. "I know that they're going to end up weakening Social Security because the country is weak."
The Trump campaign has pushed back against Biden's criticism of the comments, saying his words are being distorted. Trump's campaign has attacked the Biden campaign for sharing snippets from Trump's answer rather than the longer exchange.
There were times earlier last year when Trump was similarly quiet on the trail, going weeks without a campaign event even as his 2024 Republican challengers were aggressively campaigning in the early states. However, he dramatically ramped up his campaign schedule leading up to early voting states, holding campaign events back-to-back in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina even as he was keeping up with a clashing court schedule.
With Biden out on the road, the Trump campaign has sought to highlight blunders he's made as Trump and his allies throw accusations around about Biden's mental acuity -- claims Biden and his team have dismissed. In a new campaign ad released earlier this month, Biden acknowledged his advanced age.
"Look, I'm not a young guy," Biden said with a chuckle at the start of the ad, speaking directly to camera. "That's no secret. Here's the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people."
Trump is three years younger than Biden.
Trump supporters -- as well as political experts -- note that Trump's primary schedule didn't impact his ability to ultimately clinch the Republican nomination, arguing that his campaign has been able to make headlines in other ways.
"The campaign has curbed hosting the big rallies that Trump likes to save money. But Trump's name is still on the front page of every media outlet in the country on a daily basis. So even if he's not doing events, his visibility remains high," said Dan Eberhart, a longtime Republican donor who served as bundler for Gov. Ron DeSantis during his presidential bid. Eberhart said he now supports Trump.
This time around, Trump's campaign boasted a bigger war chest of $42 million entering March, according to campaign finance data. Still, Trump's campaign is being relatively frugal with its campaign fund as it tries to build a war chest that can compete with Biden and the Democratic Party's $100 million cash on hand, according to campaign finance data.
"He has also benefited from staying out of the spotlight and having to answer questions from reporters every day. It certainly hasn't hurt him in the polls," Eberhart said.
Political strategist Charlie Kolean said it's not surprising that Trump is not campaigning as much after securing the Republican nomination, considering his campaign is facing a cash crunch and he continues to be tied up in courts.
"I think it's intentional," Kolean said, adding that he doesn't believe Trump's lack of campaign events in recent weeks as Biden ramps up his campaigning will hurt the former president's campaign.
Trump's few in-person campaign events following Super Tuesday is especially notable compared to his 2016 campaign, when he was criss-crossing the country and holding more than a dozen campaign rallies within two weeks of Super Tuesday as he was still competing against his Republican primary rivals.
"I think you're going to see a lot more of this," Kolean added. "When Trump is doing an interview, I think it will be more controlled, with more friendly-ish type outlets, and I think when Trump does a rally, it's gonna be more strategic."
