Trump Worried Due to 'Ineffective' Strategy, Has Run Out of 'Tricks' Ahead of Elections: Strategist

The 2024 elections in the US are fast approaching and Donald Trump is currently in a state of 'panic,' if a democratic strategist is to be believed. The former president, who emerged as a victor after his potential assassination attempt, has witnessed the worst month following Joe Biden's exit. His new Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, is gaining momentum while he seems to have oversaturated himself with giving her nicknames. 

With less than 90 days to the November elections, the former president has likely over-exhausted all the monikers for Harris, starting from "Laffin' Kamala" before pivoting to "Lyin' Kamala," followed by "Crazy Kamala" and "Kamabla." The name-calling has been the Trump brand's biggest tool to humiliate their Republican and Democratic rivals.

However, the Republican nominee has lost his spark as Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins told Politico, "What you're starting to see is the panic of, 'We're in these 80-something days, I don't have enough time to learn a new trick. So what do I do with the tricks in my bag to at least throw her off her game?' But at this point, you've seen him so much, and he's oversaturated himself that nothing shocks anybody anymore." 

Meanwhile, Harris isn't Trump's first opponent to have received strange nicknames from Trump. Previously, he called his 2016 rival and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary," a name he has repurposed for Biden. He also addressed Biden as "Sleepy Joe" while mocking his old age and mimicking some of POTUS' stage gaffes during his rallies. 

In fact, during a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in May 2024, Trump pumped his MAGA rally by letting them choose the better nickname for Biden. "Doesn't matter anymore, but what do you like better: Crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe?" he asked supporters before answering himself, "Sleepy Joe, Crooked Joe. OK, ready? They're both correct. I think Crooked Joe is more correct to say." 

However, none of it seems to be helping Trump anymore as one of his former aides and the ex-White House Press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham, echoed Hopkins and claimed that the Republican GOP nominee is 'panicking.' In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she claimed that the 78-year-old was quite frustrated by the positive press attention VP Harris has been receiving lately. 

Grisham wrote on August 8, 2024, "Trump's self-announced press conference today at 2 pm: He's panicking. I've seen this play many times. He thinks his team is failing him & no one can speak better/'save' his campaign/defend him but him. He hates the coverage Harris is getting & thinks only he can fix it." 

And the polls seem to be backing this argument as VP Harris continues to hold a thin lead over Trump in national and swing state polls. According to the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, Harris secured support from 49% of registered voters while Trump has been backed by 45%. The rest of them said they'd back someone else before the Democratic National Convention (DNC), as per The Hill. Furthermore, Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, recalled when Trump first followed the nickname strategy with Clinton: "He was humiliating and debasing his opponents by abusing them in a way that was completely unconventional for American-style politics." However, Madrid urged that '8 years' later. Trump was still relying on the same strategy, which 'makes the attack ineffective anyway.'