Trump news conference: Old habits, new vulnerability

Halfway through Donald Trump’s news conference, one of his aides posted on X a montage of TV screens broadcasting it live. “Wall to wall. Kamala Harris can’t do this,” he wrote.

Once, it was a boast that Team Trump didn’t have to make, but the visibility contest has changed.

As the new Democratic ticket enjoys a honeymoon trip through the swing states, Mr Trump finds himself on the wrong side of a split-screen election campaign.

The heavy lifting has been left to his running-mate, JD Vance, hosting ‘dual rallies’ as he shadows his opponents around the country.

Enthusiasm for the Harris-Walz show doesn’t lighten his load.

Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference was about putting him back in the spotlight and back in the game – he’s playing it by ear.

Having backed away from the idea of a TV debate, he’s now suggesting three. Ms Harris has agreed to one, on 10 September.

Mr Trump’s tweak in the plan is one measure of how the change in personnel has changed the presidential contest, a Democratic surge in the polls is another.

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Public deserve to have questions put to Ms Harris

Mr Trump criticised Ms Harris for not conducting interviews. There are, indeed, legitimate questions to be asked of a vice president who hasn’t conducted a single set-piece interview since it was clear she would be the nominee.

Her team is talking about arranging a joint interview with Ms Harris and Tim Walz, her running mate, in “a few weeks,” adding that she had been busy with other business.

While it’s plain to see why the Democratic Party want their ticket to ride the wave of rallies and party convention without hazard, it’s unacceptable for the voting public to be kept waiting. They deserve independent and regular interrogation to inform their decision and there are questions to be asked of Ms Harris, no doubt – not least her U-turns over the years on issues like fracking and defunding the police, to name but two.

Mr Trump says a debate will give him the chance to explore the issues. Come the time, he will have enough advisers urging him to sell a solid conservative message on voter priorities – the economy, crime and immigration.

They were wrapped into his Florida news conference, albeit wrapped up in a series of falsehoods.

He said “nobody was killed on January 6” when, in fact, nine deaths have been linked to the 2021 Capitol riots.

He said there was a “peaceful transfer” of power when, in fact, there wasn’t.

He said his January 6 speech in Washington DC attracted a similar sized, if not bigger, crowd than the iconic “I Have a Dream” address by Dr Martin Luther King. MLK attracted 250,000, while a Congressional committee put Mr Trump’s crowd at around 53,000.

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Trump news conference fails fact-checker

It’s not the first of Mr Trump’s news conferences to fail the fact-checker. Untruths – casual or calculated – are, in many ways, vintage Mr Trump. That didn’t change in an hour’s Q&A at Mar-a-Lago, but now the context is different.

When Joe Biden was in the race, his weakness provided cover for Mr Trump. The negative focus on Mr Biden’s age and failings reduced the impact and significance of Mr Trump’s missteps.

Americans had grown tired of a contest between two old men that it didn’t want, and much of the country had stopped listening.

Now, Mr Trump faces a younger, ebullient and more sure-footed opposition. It reframes the presidential race and resets public scrutiny.

The danger for Mr Trump is that increased exposure presents a new vulnerability as America watches with a fresh eye.

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