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Trump ramping up for 2020 reelection
The Politico ^ | August 21, 2017 | Alex Isenstadt

Posted on 08/21/2017 2:40:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

President Donald Trump is methodically building a 2020 reelection campaign machine, shunting aside doubts about his viability for a second term as controversy consumes the early months of his administration.

Trump is mapping out a fall fundraising tour that is expected to fill his campaign bank account with tens of millions of dollars. His team has tracked dozens of potential Democratic rivals, a list of names that ranges from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. And his administration has received political advice from a top campaign pollster from his 2016 campaign, who has urged the president to keep up his attacks on the mainstream media.

On Tuesday, Trump heads to the swing state of Arizona for a campaign-style rally organized by his political operation.

The preparations, described by 10 people — White House staffers, Republican National Committee officials and Trump campaign aides —come at a perilous time for the president, who has seen his approval rating plummet to historic lows and is facing mounting criticism from senior Republicans. Trump is under fire for going easy on white supremacists and has failed to sign a major piece of legislation, while a special counsel is bearing down on his campaign’s dealings with Russia. His chief strategist and main conduit to the activist right, Steve Bannon, left the White House on Friday, and Trump’s advisers say the president is increasingly isolated from his own party.

Yet Trump’s team — rankled by reports that other Republicans are preparing to run in 2020 if the president falters — is proceeding on the assumption the 71-year-old president will seek reelection. The work commenced in January when Trump filed federal papers declaring himself a 2020 candidate.

"We're already engaging voters and volunteers in key battleground states to defend our majorities in 2018 and to ensure we keep the White House in 2020,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, who has overseen the deployment of over 100 staffers to key states on the president’s behalf.

Trump’s 2020 focus will take on greater clarity this fall. He is slated to visit a handful of states, including New York and Texas, for fundraisers that will benefit a joint account for Trump's reelection and the RNC, according to two people familiar with the plans. He is also expected to travel to Nevada, a swing state also filled with powerful Republican donors.

Trump held his first reelection fundraiser in June at his Washington hotel. The proceeds from that event contributed to the $86.5 million the RNC has raised since the start of the year, more than double what the Democratic National Committee has taken in.

Behind the scenes, White House aides have begun informally monitoring the political activities of an ever-expanding group of Democrats who are considering 2020 campaigns — a roster that includes veteran officeholders like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, newcomers like Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, and outsiders like former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. The attention that would come with running against Trump will be irresistible to Democrats, his aides predict, ensuring that scores take the plunge.

With Trump’s support declining among Republicans, his aides are also keeping an eye on possible GOP opponents, namely John Kasich. The Ohio governor and 2016 rival has kept up his criticism of the president and recently published a book, “Two Paths,” laying out his differences with the president. The attacks, two administration officials said, have drawn notice within the White House.

With prospective rivals visiting key primary states and conducting preliminary outreach to donors, the administration has taken early steps to undermine them. Bannon recently floated the idea of regulating Facebook as a public utility, which would give the government greater control over the social media giant. Internally, the move was regarded as an effort to troll Zuckerberg, who recently brought on former Hillary Clinton pollster Joel Benenson. Zuckerberg has embarked on a listening tour of the country to learn about how “people are living, working and thinking about the future.”

The nerve center of the emerging Trump-2020 campaign is RNC headquarters on Capitol Hill. The committee has begun conducting rapid-response against prospective Democratic rivals, casting them as hell-bent on preventing Trump from advancing his platform. Last week, it sent out a news release attacking New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

“The 2020 Democrat field is trying to stand out by obstructing the president’s agenda,” the release said.

The cash-flush committee, which has been meeting roughly once a month with the Trump campaign and members of the president’s family, has also begun placing field staffers, communications directors, and state directors in over a dozen battlegrounds to direct political operations and drive pro-Trump messaging. Among the states to which the RNC has begun deployment is North Carolina, which doesn’t have a Senate or gubernatorial race in 2018 but is seen as a key 2020 battleground.

Committee officials are set to gather later this week in Nashville, where they will outline their preparations for the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election. Eric Trump, the president’s son, and Michael Glassner, who has been leading the Trump campaign’s reelection efforts, are expected to be on hand.

Shortly before the inauguration, the Trump campaign announced that it would be keeping open its headquarters in Trump Tower. The office, which has organized seven rallies since the inauguration, is staffed by a handful of Trump aides, including Glassner, a longtime loyalist of the president, and John Pence, a nephew of Vice President Mike Pence. George Gigicos, a longtime Trump advance aide, recently left the White House to join the reelection campaign.

“While we maintain a small and lean operation, our mission is to support President Trump’s agenda by maintaining contact with our millions of supporters around the country, leveraging social media to overcome the filter of the biased mainstream media, and by hosting rallies around the country to help the president to stay connected to the people he proudly serves,” said Glassner.

Much of the campaign’s preparations involve building out its data program, an effort being overseen by Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2016 digital director. Parscale recently moved from San Antonio to Florida in part because he wanted easier access to New York City and Washington, where most of the Trump political work takes place.

Parscale, who recently joined the board of Data Trust, a firm that works closely with the RNC and other GOP groups, has plunged into a number of projects, including expanding the number of supporters Trump can reach by text message. His staff has been working to broaden the campaign’s email list, with a goal of banking between 20 million and 30 million addresses by the time the 2020 campaign arrives. They want to enable the president’s political website to better target individual visitors.

“We are wasting no time to prepare for the future," Glassner said.

Trump’s 2016 staffers have begun to discuss who will serve as campaign manager on a 2020 effort. While some suggest Parscale or Pence chief of staff Nick Ayers, much of the speculation has centered on White House political director Bill Stepien, a favorite of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who has kept a low profile since joining the administration.

The White House also has been receiving political guidance from pollster John McLaughlin, a veteran of GOP presidential campaigns who served on the Trump 2016 effort. In late May, as the president’s political fortunes declined, McLaughlin provided the administration with the results of a lengthy survey that tested the national political environment.

In a summary of the results, according to two people who reviewed it, he advised Trump that his conservative base remained intact, but that he needed to renew the message of his campaign — that Trump was a change figure who offered a break from the disappointments of the Obama era.

McLaughlin also highlighted voters most concerned with the economy — a group that Trump focused on relentlessly during the campaign — and advised that more of them needed to feel that the country was headed in the right direction.

And he offered some counsel that Trump didn’t need. "Keep pointing out unfair biased media,” the pollster wrote, “whenever possible."


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; State and Local
KEYWORDS: democrats; gop; republicans; trump
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1 posted on 08/21/2017 2:40:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The best way to ramp up for 2020 is to fulfill the 2016 campaign promises. It is the make or break issue for 2020.
 
2 posted on 08/21/2017 2:42:35 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Afghanistan, where empires go to die.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If he doesn’t ramp up prosecution and prevention of voter fraud he isn’t ramping up anything.


3 posted on 08/21/2017 2:48:43 PM PDT by samtheman (As an oil exporter, why would the Russians prefer Trump to Hillary? (Get it or be stupid.))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He needs to tell Flake are you with us or against us. We have a big campaign set up to get rid of you sorry ass if you are against us.


4 posted on 08/21/2017 2:50:18 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Without Bannon, Trump has no hope of even becoming the Republican nominee in 2020.

He’s a single term, lame duck president, now bought and paid for by New York liberals.


5 posted on 08/21/2017 2:50:45 PM PDT by Candor7 (Obama Fascism http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I can’t wait for the nicknames of his new opponents.


6 posted on 08/21/2017 2:52:26 PM PDT by luvbach1 (I hope Trump runs roughshod over the inevitable obstuctionists, Dems, progs, libs, or RINOs!)
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To: Candor7

Without Bannon, Trump has no hope of even becoming the Republican nominee in 2020.

He’s a single term, lame duck president, now bought and paid for by New York liberals.


LOL.


7 posted on 08/21/2017 2:53:30 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: Candor7

Oh, please. Look at his continuing accomplishments.


8 posted on 08/21/2017 2:59:31 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation camp?)
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To: Candor7

Yeah, you’ve said that dozens of times now.


9 posted on 08/21/2017 2:59:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: Candor7

“Without Bannon, Trump has no hope of even becoming the Republican nominee in 2020.”

Oh will you freaking Bannon worshipers just go F-off already! That guy is not Jesus, or some Mystical being of infinite political genius.

I didnt see one damn speech he made, one debate he participated in, or one rally he headlined in 2016. Funny, it seemed like it was Trump doing that.

Just haul your stupid ass to the polls in Nov 2020 and manage to fill in the right circle, otherwise save the rest of us another election of tour robotic “woe is me” BS.


10 posted on 08/21/2017 3:06:49 PM PDT by VanDeKoik
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TRUMP has Reelection in the bag! lol


11 posted on 08/21/2017 3:13:52 PM PDT by KavMan
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To: Candor7
So tell me...how did Trump do in the months prior to bringing Bannon on board in August 2016, just several months before the general election?

How did Trump even win the nomination?

12 posted on 08/21/2017 3:14:21 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (We're right, you're wrong - that's the end of the argument.)
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To: Candor7

How did he win the nomination without Banon? Breitbart needs him more than the WH


13 posted on 08/21/2017 3:19:48 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

1/14/19. Kasich’s last day of mattering.


14 posted on 08/21/2017 3:33:42 PM PDT by far sider
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
So, you say Trump is going to run for Re-Election?

Well, the math on this totally supports your positions let’s do a little math to see how this plays out and I totally agree he will.

The left has totally overplayed their racist, misogyny, homophobic meme and now are in an all out war to destroy history, culture and our future

They have literally Fk'd themselves in the South, of that there can be no doubt. It's freaking over for them.

Coal Country? Ditto

I'm sure Trump and the administration wasn't thinking things would be so bad that even "so called" republicans would lay down with dirty dogs and come up with fleas

Make America Great Again. A new direction for the rest of the century.

Deliver an even bigger majority in 2018 to set up redistricting in 2020.

Here are some real math numbers.

1st. 2018 is not going to end well for them. They have 25 seats up, with 11 vulnerable. Compare that to the Republicans who have only seats up with merely 2 vulnerable.

Let’s just say losing 30% cor the Dems would be a friggin disaster but, not as bad as 2020....more later.

I think Trump will relish that victory but, it only gets better on matters of substance from there.

2nd. SCOTUS...3 more turns at bat over the next 8 years.

3rd. Federal Judges. Over the next 7.5 years we will realign more than 1/2 or more than 700 Federal Judges and may even break up pesky courts like the 9th.

Hell, we could replace a few annoying judges in Hawaii.

4th. The Wall.

Whomp!

5th. Obamacare will be repealed. “OH NOES!”

6th. Lower Capital gains tax and offer enticing tax advantages to repatriate some of the $3 Trillion offshore and put that capital to work investing in factories and new business ideas. This will invigorate the economy.

Boom! Shams Laka...Boom! Oh, the economy this quarter is on track to out perform any year or quarter than the last guy could must.

In fact, this quarter will out perform Barack’s best quarter by nearly double at 3.7%! “Oooh RahhH!”

7th. 2020. Dems have 11 Senate seats up, compared to 22 for Republicans.

We probably have a net gain of 3 for the Senate.

All 435 seats in Congress are up but, if we can get the issues of healthcare coverage, The economy and the wall in progress as well at least SCOTUS we will probably have an increase in the house as well(I am still studying that battlefield and don’t have numbers yet)

So why all the fighting from the Dems and these charges which are no more than vapor?

Well, their product sucks. Its a stew of hate, Socialism/Marxist utopian ideals and more segregation of society by invented classes of aggrieved people.

But, the real kicker is this about Reapportionment. Can you say Entropy?

8. Yeah that’s right. With more wins under the belt of the Republicans we will have a larger swath of land to carve up because the census will take place, which the predicate for redistricting and guess who wins that fight no matter what?

Republicans and we get an increase in key states we will continue to win. Alabama, Georgia and Florida will gain 1 more representative in the house, who will likely be a Republican

However, Texas will gain 3 or 4 representatives locking up the south for Republicans over the next decade.

So, in 2020 we will gain further majorities in the house and senate, redistrict in our favor, we will be in the middle of an economy that out performs all other nations, 2 SCOTUS or more will be seated in our favor, 300-400 Federal judges are seated Obamacare/Check, Tax Policy/Check, The Wall/Check, Fair Trade/Check, ISIS Dead/Check, Russia petitions for statehood (jus kee dean), Trump Re-elected / Yuge Check.

And the dems wander the wilderness for 10 years because they stand zero chance of doing anything significant after 2020.

You see, as of June 2017 the DNC is not only running an insane $3.5 million dollars in debt but, their fundraising is at the lowest in 14 years.

Who has momentum then and who is winning? Stupet fkrs...

And they have no candidate for 2020 as yet but, their current financial or intellectual leadership.

Oh, and that Trump meme “ He’s going to step down!” Uhmmm...Boo Chit.

You are intellectually Bankrupt as the demoncrats:

He’s already fund-raising for his 2020 PAC with $12,000,000 cash on hand.

That’s right. After disbursements he’s got $12 million Cash!. That’s debt free money. Oh, and the RNC is cash flow positive with $44,000,000 in the bank. I ask you, at this point, who is going to win?

Conclusion:

Democrats are so broke they can’t pay attention and have zero money to support any war but a Cheap azz Chinese knockoff of an intellect.

So, get use to Donald Trump being president for 8 years.

Posting HTML

15 posted on 08/21/2017 4:17:10 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

the only “controversies” surrounding Trump are those ginned up by the democrat/media slime machine working in perfect harmony. Few, outside the democrat bubble, even consider these as “controversies”.


16 posted on 08/21/2017 4:38:37 PM PDT by euram
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Doesn’t EVERY politician start “ramping up” for re-election as soon as s/he gets elected?

How many times has Pelosi, McCain, Schumer, et al, “ramped up” for re-election.

This news story is exactly the kind you write when you have writer’s block, and are trying to meet a deadline. A pure “nothing burger”.

Their reference material includes “Captain Obvious”.


17 posted on 08/21/2017 4:44:56 PM PDT by FrankR (Without the hearts and minds...politicians have NOTHING.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He's not the only one... let's hope she's in prison by then.


18 posted on 08/21/2017 5:23:26 PM PDT by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
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To: Vendome

Beautifully done
vendome! I can’t wait for his second term! He is a joy!


19 posted on 08/21/2017 5:30:30 PM PDT by Persevero (Democrats haven't been this nutty since we freed their slaves.)
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To: Candor7

Bannon is still with Trump - just not in the White House. Trump will be re-elected. His approach is inspiring American business, and strong economic growth is happening. Winning.


20 posted on 08/21/2017 5:35:23 PM PDT by karnage
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