Why falling poll numbers are changing how Donald Trump is approaching the 2016 presidential contest.
Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said something that we’ve all known for a while now.
Donald Trump might be in real trouble.
In John Catsimatidis’s radio show – The Cats Roundtable – he said in terms of Trump’s polling numbers that, “there are red flags with the Trump campaign right now, there’s no doubt about that.” And he’s right. In terms of Trump’s polling numbers, they are progressively getting worse. Even if the Trump campaign refuses to acknowledge them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Z9lTUu3e8
So after months of many people speculating the Trump campaign were going to pivot on their message for the general election, there are legitimate signs that it’s finally taken place. Here are two notable examples.
Trump’s Play at Black Voters
Inner-city crime is reaching record levels. African-Americans will vote for Trump because they know I will stop the slaughter going on!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2016
Throughout Donald Trump’s Republican primary run, his campaign had taken a very nationalistic stance on most issues. That meant on issues of race and immigration, Trump’s stances usually went against those of various minority groups. For example, in terms of the Black Lives Matter movement, Trump has consistently called himself the “Law and Order” candidate. For many that relate to BLM, Trump’s message of not questioning police authority would not go over so well.
But his message, in recent rallies, looks to have changed.
As the above video shows, Trump in the past two weeks has made a serious play at African-American voters by not completely changing his message as the “Law and Order” candidate, but molding it to African-American communities. What the Trump campaign is banking on is that many African-Americans will be cognizant to Trump’s message due to the gun violence problem in various major cities. Even though statistics show that gun homicides have gone down, Trump hopes that his message will still resonate with the African-American bloc.
Trump Will Actually Start Running Political Ads!?!
The Donald Trump campaign plans on spending $10 million on ad buys in battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. Which for the Trump campaign is a ‘UGE deal!
For a regular presidential campaign, the idea of spending millions on a significant ad buy wouldn’t be a major issue at all, but for the Trump campaign it’s a REALLY big deal. Up until now, Trump has paid about the grand total of zero dollars on national TV ads, while Clinton has spent $77 million on TV and radio advertising.
Trump has questioned the use of political advertising many times during the primaries – with the idea being, if the media is giving him free airtime during interviews, why would he pay for media exposure? – but with Clinton’s lead in the general election growing, you could see the Trump campaign getting a little nervous. The real question becomes what will the ads be focusing on. For our money, it’ll either be about Clinton’s emails or Trump’s immigration policy.
(Photo Credits: Donald Trump’s Instagram, Google Images)