Donald Trump held a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida on Thursday, after Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz went back on the campaign trail.
It's part of Trump's effort to put the spotlight back on him after Harris became the Democratic nominee, says Meridith McGraw.
McGraw is the author of "Trump in Exile," which is a look at the months and years where former President Trump was largely out of the spotlight after he left office and wasn't heard as much on social media.
The book details Trump's post-presidency era and how that has shaped the GOP front runner we see today, while his campaign works to try and convince enough voters to put him into the White House for a second term.
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"The Trump campaign has been very confident about their standing in this race," McGraw told Scripps News. "They've been ahead in a lot of polling and battleground states, against President Joe Biden — but, when the dynamics of the race changed with Harris now running against Trump and her announcement of [Tim] Walz ... even the Trump campaign has admitted that there is an opening with the Democratic ticket when it comes to undecided voters."
McGraw draws some insight from her work as a national correspondent at Politico, the news outlet that reports on beltway politics, along with national and local races.
McGraw says Trump spends a lot of time on the phone at home making calls to political allies and fundraising by making calls to donors, according to her sources — and, she says, the former president plays a lot of golf to unwind.
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"He really does work the phones a lot asking people for their thoughts and opinions on a lot of things," McGraw said. "One of the things I found when I was going back and doing research and going through things for this book was Trump outlined a few of the key things you need to do to come back, and they were: Get revenge, get even, and play golf. And those are things that Trump has continued to do, even as he has campaigned for president."
Scripps News reported that Trump has held 7 rallies so far this year, compared to at least 37 in the summer of 2016 before he was last elected.
McGraw says it's uncertain how much the attempted assassination against Trump has changed how he is deciding to campaign this time.
