The odds that Donald Trump will sincerely run for re-election when the time comes (assuming he has not quit the office either of his own volition or under duress) continue to hover slightly above zero. But selling himself to small crowds of rich people and large crowds of poorer people is all the man has ever done in his life, so it wasn't much of a surprise when he smoothly rolled over his 2016 campaign into a 2020 campaign in his very first days in office. Six months later, he's already planning out his "fundraising tours."
Trump is mapping out a fall fundraising tour that is expected to fill his campaign bank account with tens of millions of dollars. His team has tracked dozens of potential Democratic rivals, a list of names that ranges from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. And his administration has received political advice from a top campaign pollster from his 2016 campaign, who has urged the president to keep up his attacks on the mainstream media. [...]
Trump’s 2020 focus will take on greater clarity this fall. He is slated to visit a handful of states, including New York and Texas, for fundraisers that will benefit a joint account for Trump's reelection and the RNC, according to two people familiar with the plans. He is also expected to travel to Nevada, a swing state also filled with powerful Republican donors.
Donald Trump is all about asking people for money. He's all about bragging to willing crowds about his supposed prowess in take-your-pick. Declaring someone your opponent and then spending weeks, months, or years lambasting them at every opportunity? It's as close as the man has to an actual hobby. No, campaigning is the one thing in life that seems to soothe the man's ego: if his staff wasn't constantly arranging new rallies for the man to go to he'd probably curl up under the Oval Office desk and refuse to come out again.
Trump may be progressing rapidly from his past status as tire fire to a new status as, well, four or five tire fires, but he continues to have the full support of the Republican National Committee. They won't be detaching themselves from Trump anytime soon, and it's largely because Trumpism, in who it targets and what it seeks, is hard to separate from the RNC's own targets and pronouncements to begin with.
The nerve center of the emerging Trump-2020 campaign is RNC headquarters on Capitol Hill. The committee has begun conducting rapid-response against prospective Democratic rivals, casting them as hell-bent on preventing Trump from advancing his platform. Last week, it sent out a news release attacking New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
What a fascinating list of people the Republican Party continues to be obsessed with. It feels like all the people the Republican National Committee is most focused on attacking all have something in common, aside from their mere status as Democrats, but it’s tough to put a finger on it. Elizabeth Warren is their public enemy No. 1, of course, having recently taken the title from Nancy Pelosi, and they still won't shut up about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama—what could it be? Why does, say, Kamala Harris receive so many more attacks than a Joe Biden or a Bernie Sanders?
It is a mystery.