President Donald Trump is facing impeachment, falling poll numbers, and a myriad of scandals that could make him even more unpopular than he already is, and now he’s counting on his daughter, Ivanka, to be the secret weapon that gets him reelected come 2020.
Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post notes that Trump knows many Americans have a visceral hatred for him, but he doesn’t believe that will prevent him from being reelected:
“It is a rare admission from a politician. But it’s key to a campaign strategy built around an awareness that Trump’s favorability — even before he was impeached by the House — is near record lows and that he won’t stop tweeting, offering bombast and insults, saying things that aren’t true, or making polarizing decisions. So Trump’s advisers are leaning in.”
The Trump 2020 strategy is simple: Focus on financial issues and try to keep the president away from Twitter as much as possible.
In an effort to reach out to a group he’s losing ground with, suburban women, the campaign will use Ivanka Trump as a surrogate for the president:
“The campaign expects to send surrogates who are less bombastic, such as Ivanka Trump, into areas where suburban women might be persuaded to vote for him.”
Such a strategy, however, runs the risk of alienating other voters who see Ivanka as little more than a failed businesswoman who was named a top adviser to her father only because she happens to be his daughter. Even the economic message will only go so far when it comes to overcoming the sense of fatigue many voters say they feel since Trump was elected.
But the Trump 2020 team thinks they have a winning formula that was essential to his success in 2016:
“On Election Day in 2016, 61 percent of the country rated Trump unfavorably. Now he’s running for a second term.”
That second term, however, is not guaranteed. If you doubt that, go back and take a look at what happened to George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election.
Featured Image Via Wikimedia Commons
