Donald Trump isn’t running a bad campaign.

[cali]

He’s not really running a campaign at all.

It's become commonplace in political circles to bash Donald Trump for running a bad general-election campaign since he secured the GOP nomination seven weeks ago today. But that misses the point. Donald Trump is not running a bad campaign. He is barely running any sort of campaign at all — at least not by any definition that any political person would recognize.

Take Trump's fundraising. He collected $3.1 million in the month of May and ended the month with $1.2 million in the bank. Trump's campaign released a statement Tuesday insisting that "the campaign’s fundraising has been incredible and we continue to see a tremendous outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and money to the Republican Party," but little evidence is available to suggest that's accurate. After all, if Trump could not raise any significant money in the month when he became the presumptive nominee why would June, when he has been beset by questions about his readiness to be the GOP nominee, be better?


<snip>

On the fundraising, staffing and ad fronts then, what Trump is doing bares little resemblance to a modern presidential campaign or, really, a modern Senate or House campaign.

Compare what Clinton's campaign is doing today with what Trump has spent almost the past two months doing. In anticipation of an address aimed at Trump's economic policies, the Clinton team briefed a series of state and national reporters on what will be in the speech. Surrogates fanned out to preview the speech and will serve as supporting voices once she finishes it. She tweeted out a video this morning taking on Trump's claim that he is a very good businessman.

Trump does none of that. (And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that he will have no strategic plan on how to effectively rebut Clinton's speech.) What does he do? He travels the country, giving speeches — often wildly at variance with one another in their message. He calls in to TV news shows. He tweets. And, according to his campaign finance report covering contributions and expenditures in May, he builds a virtuous financial circle for himself and his companies.

<snip>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/21/donald-trump-isnt-running-a-bad-campaign-because-hes-not-really-running-a-campaign-at-all/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. The Trump nightmare relys on the

Free bees coming from his friends at Corporate Media. After all,he is still considered a Talent and his clap trap style sells cheap China made garbage to the low information 25 % of our population. Hey,this free bee crap has become the norm with local TV stations,with at least one 15-30 second story in each and every so called News segment.

Why should the Guy ramp up his campaign,his pals got his back.

[cali]

2. I completely disagree. He doesn't have many friends in the corporate media

The despicable MSM was perfectly content to use him for ratings and revenue during the primaries. Now, the coverage by them is almost universally about as negative as you can get.

Anyone who thinks the MSM isn't hugely on HRC's side, isn't paying attention.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

5. Bingo!

It's been obvious all along.

You know the phrase - "Give him enough rope..."

[lunatica]

6. The media coverage has gotten critical because he insulted them a few weeks ago

and he told them he would continue to do so if he was President. I've noticed a definite progression from just writing about the latest insane thing he does or brags about to actually writing the truth about what he does or says.

That's the real reason Trump has had such a hard time in the last couple of weeks. They're digging up his past and they're finding real stories there.

His problem is that since he doesn't really want his affairs, nefarious or not, to be public knowledge he isn't bringing any attention to the newspapers or to the journalists. So his usual attack mode on anyone who crosses him isn't working anymore. At least not with the media.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. Black listing the Washington Post was a terrible move

The media makes their living through access. And access to our public officials is considered part of our Democracy. Trump just signaled that he doesn't value that part of the democracy and is going to wield access as a way to get preferential treatment in a way never done before. The entire media is appalled and they're going to keep burying him.

[cali]

11. that's only a small piece of it.

the big names in the MSM have NEVER been pro-trump. Even the right wing ones.

See Murdoch, Rupert as a prime example.

[rgbecker]

3. He's doing it exactly the way I would.

Over the top Name Recognition.
Every newscaster and political hack is talking about him everyday. Endless threads on DU about him.
Everybody even slightly interested in the presidential race has an opinion about him and is talking about him.
No one can tell you what Clinton is up to, but can re-tweet Trump tweets and quote his statements at the drop of a hat.
He says whatever he likes and his supporters, millions who would never consider voting for Clinton, can pick and choose what they want to hear and repeat.

He is the perfect candidate from the party of the angry white guy. He is the angriest of the lot, ready to take their money.

[cali]

4. the common "wisdom" that all news coverage is a good thing

is baloney.

And Hillary is getting plenty of good news coverage.

He's sinking like a rock.

[rgbecker]

7. So you don't agree with the OP?

Whuoops, that's you!

If Americans are in general, low information voters, getting their news and information from selected sources with a bias in favor of the listener's bias, the coverage is going to sound good, so the more the better. The Trump voter isn't listening to NPR, reading the NYTimes. In fact he isn't listening to anything, so the overflow of Trump media into his Sports talk show will help Trump far more than the silence from Clinton.

[cali]

8. I agree with part of the op- that he's essentially not running a campaign

If all this is so helpful to Trump, why is it that the last couple of weeks have been so disastrous for him? You do realize that he's been steadily falling in the polls, right?

[gratuitous]

10. I read the MSN story about Trump's FEC report

And I just had to dip into the comments (never read the comments). I didn't go all the way through, but there was the usual nattering from Trump supporters about what a great man he is, but nothing like what there has been in the past couple of months. Anecdotally speaking, I'd say Trump has lost better than half his online support, and a LOT of people are making unchallenged fun of Trump and his campaign. That didn't used to happen even a couple of weeks ago.

If Democrats buckle down and work this election season, we can have a real wave year. Republican voters are dispirited in the extreme.

[kimbutgar]

12. We just have to keep chipping away at him

Exposing him as the cretin he truly is.

I noticed also that when I posted a negative comment on Don the con I'm not getting attacked like I did about 2 weeks ago.

[malaise]

13. Don the Con is running the scam of his lifetime

He's making money and demanding that the RNC pay - it's fall down funny.