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Trump, Campaigning in West, Fixates on Democrats and His Poll Numbers When Democrats Vote, Trump Is Never Far Away
(about 3 hours later)
LAS VEGAS — President Trump believes that wherever he goes, he can force the news cycle — and political fortunes — to turn in his favor. And that is why not even 24 hours into a four-day trip to the West Coast he has become noticeably irritated by reports on polls showing several Democratic candidates closing in on him in hypothetical matchups. LAS VEGAS — President Trump is not exactly a fan of life on the road.
Mr. Trump began the day on Wednesday by voicing those complaints at a volunteer event attended by his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, in the restaurant of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. Journalists were not invited to Mr. Trump’s campaign breakfast, but a New York Times reporter was dining in the restaurant as a guest. He agreed to a four-day Western trip this week on the condition that he spend every night at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. And that location had another attraction: It placed him at the current center of the 2020 presidential race — Nevada, where Democrats will vote Saturday in caucuses that could reshape the campaign.
“You know, we have internal polls that say we beat every candidate,” Mr. Trump told the crowd, at times veering off into specific polls that showed candidates ahead of him in individual states. “One thing we’ve done is we’ve shown the press to be corrupt and fake.” The trip was meant to showcase the president’s aggressive re-election push to drum up funds from high-dollar donors in California, a Democratic state where Mr. Trump is widely unpopular but enjoys some concentrated pockets of support. But the president believes that wherever he goes, he can force the news cycles — and political fortunes — to turn in his favor.
Mr. Trump took aim at CNN and MSNBC for reporting on the polls, but saved his special contempt for Comcast, which owns NBC Universal. Mr. Trump called the media conglomerate “corrupt” and a “disgrace to this country.” And the first opportunity to do that was Wednesday night, when Democrats were scheduled to hold a debate in Las Vegas.
In his remarks to supporters and later on Twitter, Mr. Trump was reacting to several recently released polls, including one by NBC and The Wall Street Journal, that show him trailing several possible Democratic opponents, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But Mr. Trump soon broadcast his irritation. “Should I go to that debate?” Mr. Trump asked a group of volunteers gathered at his hotel before he left for a high-dollar fund-raiser in Palm Springs, Calif.
“Internal REAL polls show I am beating all of the Dem candidates,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, shortly before departing to Rancho Mirage, Calif., for a private fund-raiser. “The Fake News Polls (here we go again, just like 2016) show losing or tied.” The president then set off on a hectic schedule that had him hopscotching around California and touching down in Phoenix for a “Keep America Great” rally before returning to Las Vegas for the night. And he will hold two other rallies before returning to Washington — on Thursday in Colorado Springs and on Friday in Las Vegas.
One Democrat in particular has drawn the president’s attention: Michael R. Bloomberg. For weeks, Mr. Trump has been preoccupied with the former New York City mayor and late entry to the Democratic presidential race, the money he is spending on his campaign and his rising popularity. Both in private and in public, it was clear that Mr. Trump did not want to cede any political spotlight to Democrats on the debate stage.
“You know, we have internal polls that say we beat every candidate,” the president told the crowd at his hotel, a theme he sounded all day.
Journalists were not invited to Mr. Trump’s campaign breakfast, but a New York Times reporter was dining in the restaurant as a guest. In the hotel, the president took aim at CNN and MSNBC for reporting on the polls, but saved his special contempt for Comcast, which owns NBC Universal. Mr. Trump called the media conglomerate “corrupt” and a “disgrace to this country.”
In his remarks to supporters and later on Twitter, the president was reacting to several recently released polls, including one by NBC and The Wall Street Journal, that show him trailing several possible Democratic opponents, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
“Internal REAL polls show I am beating all of the Dem candidates,” Mr. Trump tweeted shortly before leaving for Rancho Mirage, Calif., near Palm Springs, for a private fund-raiser. “The Fake News Polls (here we go again, just like 2016) show losing or tied.”
One Democrat in particular has held the president’s attention: Michael R. Bloomberg. For weeks, Mr. Trump has been preoccupied with Mr. Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor and late entry to the Democratic presidential race.
“Is corrupt Bloomberg News going to say what a pathetic debater Mini Mike is,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, using a nickname to insult Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire who has recently enjoyed a surge of popularity but who is untested on the debate stage.“Is corrupt Bloomberg News going to say what a pathetic debater Mini Mike is,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, using a nickname to insult Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire who has recently enjoyed a surge of popularity but who is untested on the debate stage.
Mr. Trump, who does not enjoy extensive travel, agreed to the West Coast swing if he could stay at his hotel in Las Vegas, people familiar with the planning said. The trip is meant to showcase his re-election campaign’s aggressive push to drum up funds from high-dollar donors in California, a Democratic state where Mr. Trump is widely unpopular but enjoys some concentrated pockets of support. Mr. Trump’s setting up base in Nevada this week was not the first time he suddenly appeared in the middle of the Democratic Party’s nominating process. Last month, he held a rally in Des Moines, four days before the Iowa caucuses.
At three back-to-back rallies in Phoenix, Colorado Springs and Las Vegas, Mr. Trump will also have the chance to connect with his base — with the added benefit that the rally in Arizona will take place Wednesday night in the middle of a Democratic debate. Eleven days later, the president traveled to Manchester, N.H., the evening before the state held its primary election on Feb. 11, though in that case he was on the Republican ballot.
At his hotel, Mr. Trump, apparently not content to let his rivals have the limelight, suggested that he was thinking about swinging by in person upon his return to Las Vegas. “If you want clear proof of how terrified Donald Trump is, just look at his travel schedule,” Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on Wednesday. “He keeps following Democrats from state to state because he knows our message is resonating. Nevada is no exception. Nevadans have rejected this president and his policies, and they’re ready to elect a Democrat to the White House.”
“Should I go to that debate?” he asked. In Nevada, it seemed that voters were attuned to Mr. Trump’s attempts to wrest attention back to his own campaign.
The counterprogramming will culminate with the Las Vegas rally on Friday, the day before Saturday’s Democratic caucuses. “It’s really disruptive, and in a way it goes hand in hand with his presidency,” Hillary Steinberg, 56, said at a restaurant in the Las Vegas Arts District. “His entire presidency has been a disruption, so it makes sense that he would do a rally so close to the primary.”
Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said the president’s schedule reflected his fear of his Democratic rivals. Rick Van Diepen, an owner of a sustainable architecture consultancy in Las Vegas, said that it was a “pretty typical distraction,” but an effective one.
“If you want clear proof of how terrified Donald Trump is, just look at his travel schedule,” Mr. Perez said on Wednesday. “He keeps following Democrats from state to state, because he knows our message is resonating. Nevada is no exception. Nevadans have rejected this president and his policies, and they’re ready to elect a Democrat to the White House.” “It’s a good tactic to keep his base energized, especially in a state that doesn’t have a Republican primary,” said Mr. Van Diepen, 49. “It’s reminding them that he’s here, too.”
Maggie Haberman and Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting. Aside from the attention-grabbing spectacle of long lines, ample media coverage and cars festooned with Trump-Pence signs driving by candidates’ events, Mr. Trump’s travels through four states on his Western swing have created a logistical nightmare for some Democratic candidates.
At least one campaign complained that Mr. Trump’s trip to Las Vegas hampered its Thursday plans, with the flight restrictions that accompany an Air Force One arrival and departure complicating its attempts for travel to more than one other state from now until Saturday.
But Justin Buoen, Senator Amy Klobuchar’s campaign manager, saw only an upside to the president’s presence.
“I haven’t gotten any sense that people care about him being here except for that it fires our base up,” he said. “I don’t think it’s hurt coverage of the candidates on cable news networks or even local TV. It hasn’t been any kind of distraction.”
Though she rarely even makes mention of the president’s current travels, Ms. Klobuchar, of Minnesota, does have a favorite laugh line in her stump speech regarding Mr. Trump’s last-minute rallies before the Louisiana and Kentucky governors’ elections last year.
“The night before the election in both those states, who went down there to campaign for those Democratic governors as opponents? Donald Trump,” Ms. Klobuchar has said. “So my first question is, where can we send him next? Because that went pretty well.”
The Democratic candidates won in both cases.
Reporting was contributed by Jim Rutenberg, Reid J. Epstein, Maggie Haberman, Nick Corasaniti and Isabella Grullón Paz.