Trump Embarks on Cross-Country Campaign Amid Challenges Posed by Harris VP Pick

Trump will campaign across the country this week as he struggles to adjust to Harris

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) -- As Democrats kick off their convention in Chicago, Donald Trump 's campaign is trying to regain its footing after weeks of struggling to adjust to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the opposing ticket. Trump will attempt to undercut the Democratic celebration with a jam-packed schedule that includes daily events in battleground states tied to subjects where Republicans think they hold an advantage. It's his busiest campaign week since the winter, when he faced challengers in the Republican primary. But when Trump has held events billed as policy speeches throughout the campaign, they have often resembled his usual, rambling rally remarks. And as has long been the case during his political career, Trump has undercut his own message with outbursts and attacks that drown out anything else. The former president and Republican nominee has appeared at times in denial about the reality that Harris, and not President Joe Biden, is now his rival. He's launched deeply personal attacks, lied about her crowds by claiming images of them were generated by AI, and played on racist tropes by questioning her racial identity as she runs to become the country's first Black female and first South Asian president. The outbursts have alarmed allies, who worry Trump is damaging his chance in what they believe is an eminently winnable race. Privately and publicly, they have urged him to focus on policy instead of personality, and to do more to broaden his appeal with swing voters as they grow more nervous about Harris' competitiveness. "If you have a policy debate for president, he wins," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election." Trump is scheduled to appear Monday in Pennsylvania to talk about the economy and energy, Tuesday in Michigan to talk about crime and safety, and Wednesday in North Carolina to talk about national security at a joint appearance with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. On Thursday, he'll travel to the southwest border in Arizona to talk about immigration before going Friday to Arizona and Nevada. Graham said he wanted Trump to focus on what he would do on the economy and the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing, "Policy is the key to the White House." Some people at his rallies agreed with that advice. "He needs to quit talking about Biden other than Harris piggybacking on those policies," said Kory Jeno, a 53-year-old from Swannanoa, North Carolina, who was waiting to see Trump speak last week in nearby Asheville. "He needs to keep the conversation on the issues and what he's doing to do for Americans instead of running off on tangents where he's just bashing her and that sort of thing." An economy news conference ends with talk of injured veterans The challenge for Republicans was on display last Thursday, when Trump invited reporters to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, to talk about the economy. As he stood before an assortment of grocery store items, Trump largely stuck to his intended message during the first half-hour, talking about rising prices and blaming Biden and Harris for enacting policies he blamed for spiking inflation. He was unusually diplomatic, including in responding to criticism from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who said last week Trump should be spending his time working to appeal to suburban women, college-educated voters, independents, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats instead of his base. "I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb," Haley said. But Trump didn't take Haley's advice when asked separately whether he needed to run a more disciplined campaign and pivot away from personal attacks against Harris. "I'm angry at her," he said. "I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president." He then gave Democrats new fodder at an event later that night with Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars helping Trump regain the White House. As he described giving her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, he said it was "much better" than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. "Everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead," Trump told an audience. "She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman." The comment was immediately blasted by the Harris campaign and by some veterans as disrespectful to service members, just as Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have tried to raise doubts about the National Guard record of Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. On Saturday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump repeatedly swerved again from a message focused on the economy to personal attacks against Harris, including a declaration that he is "much better looking" than she is. His campaign rejects the idea that he is trying to reset Trump's struggles come after an extraordinary stretch that has completely upended the campaign. Just one month ago, Republicans gathered at their national convention in Milwaukee were elated about their chances. Trump had just survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and was being hailed by his most ardent supporters as a messiah-like figure saved by God to save the nation. Biden, his opponent, was facing growing pressure from his party to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance in which he struggled at times to complete sentences. His campaign signaled it would pull back from Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia that it had flipped from Trump four years ago. But just three days after the convention closed, Biden ended his bid and endorsed Harris, who quickly aligned the party behind her. Some polls show Harris performing better than Biden in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, though most still suggest a tight race. "We just watched a rocket ship take off with Kamala Harris," Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said during a briefing with reporters earlier this month, pointing to a wave of media that, for a rare moment, eclipsed the attention Trump generates. The former president's advisers remain bullish about his chances. They insist that Harris and Democrats are caught up in a fleeting moment of excitement with their new nominee, and are confident voters will sour on the vice president as they learn more about her past comments and positions. They intend to spend the race's final stretch painting her as a liberal extremist and contrasting the candidates' differing approaches on the economy, crime and immigration. "President Trump has continued to speak about sky-high inflation that has crushed American families, an out-of-control border that threatens every community, and rampant crime while Kamala Harris continues to hide from the press," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, adding that Trump "will be barnstorming battleground states all across the country to prosecute the case against a weak, failed and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris." In Asheville, North Carolina, where Trump used an event billed as a major economic speech to go on tangents about Harris' laugh and Biden's son Hunter, 75-year-old Mary Ray said Trump "needs to stop the personal attacks." Asked whether she was referring to Trump's most incendiary comments -- calling Harris a "nasty woman" and questioning how she discusses her biracial heritage -- Ray furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Bill Barrow in Asheville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

Trump Will Campaign Across the Country This Week as He Struggles to Adjust to Harris

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) -- As Democrats kick off their convention in Chicago, Donald Trump 's campaign is trying to regain its footing after weeks of struggling to adjust to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the opposing ticket. Trump will attempt to undercut the Democratic celebration with a jam-packed schedule that includes daily events in battleground states tied to subjects where Republicans think they hold an advantage. It's his busiest campaign week since the winter, when he faced challengers in the Republican primary. But when Trump has held events billed as policy speeches throughout the campaign, they have often resembled his usual, rambling rally remarks. And as has long been the case during his political career, Trump has undercut his own message with outbursts and attacks that drown out anything else. The former president and Republican nominee has appeared at times in denial about the reality that Harris, and not President Joe Biden, is now his rival. He's launched deeply personal attacks, lied about her crowds by claiming images of them were generated by AI, and played on racist tropes by questioning her racial identity as she runs to become the country's first Black female and first South Asian president. The outbursts have alarmed allies, who worry Trump is damaging his chance in what they believe is an eminently winnable race. Privately and publicly, they have urged him to focus on policy instead of personality, and to do more to broaden his appeal with swing voters as they grow more nervous about Harris' competitiveness. "If you have a policy debate for president, he wins," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election." Trump is scheduled to appear Monday in Pennsylvania to talk about the economy and energy, Tuesday in Michigan to talk about crime and safety, and Wednesday in North Carolina to talk about national security at a joint appearance with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. On Thursday, he'll travel to the southwest border in Arizona to talk about immigration before going Friday to Arizona and Nevada. Graham said he wanted Trump to focus on what he would do on the economy and the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing, "Policy is the key to the White House." Some people at his rallies agreed with that advice. "He needs to quit talking about Biden other than Harris piggybacking on those policies," said Kory Jeno, a 53-year-old from Swannanoa, North Carolina, who was waiting to see Trump speak last week in nearby Asheville. "He needs to keep the conversation on the issues and what he's doing to do for Americans instead of running off on tangents where he's just bashing her and that sort of thing." An economy news conference ends with talk of injured veterans The challenge for Republicans was on display last Thursday, when Trump invited reporters to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, to talk about the economy. As he stood before an assortment of grocery store items, Trump largely stuck to his intended message during the first half-hour, talking about rising prices and blaming Biden and Harris for enacting policies he blamed for spiking inflation. He was unusually diplomatic, including in responding to criticism from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who said last week Trump should be spending his time working to appeal to suburban women, college-educated voters, independents, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats instead of his base. "I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb," Haley said. But Trump didn't take Haley's advice when asked separately whether he needed to run a more disciplined campaign and pivot away from personal attacks against Harris. "I'm angry at her," he said. "I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president." He then gave Democrats new fodder at an event later that night with Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars helping Trump regain the White House. As he described giving her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, he said it was "much better" than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. "Everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead," Trump told an audience. "She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman." The comment was immediately blasted by the Harris campaign and by some veterans as disrespectful to service members, just as Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have tried to raise doubts about the National Guard record of Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. On Saturday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump repeatedly swerved again from a message focused on the economy to personal attacks against Harris, including a declaration that he is "much better looking" than she is. His campaign rejects the idea that he is trying to reset Trump's struggles come after an extraordinary stretch that has completely upended the campaign. Just one month ago, Republicans gathered at their national convention in Milwaukee were elated about their chances. Trump had just survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and was being hailed by his most ardent supporters as a messiah-like figure saved by God to save the nation. Biden, his opponent, was facing growing pressure from his party to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance in which he struggled at times to complete sentences. His campaign signaled it would pull back from Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia that it had flipped from Trump four years ago. But just three days after the convention closed, Biden ended his bid and endorsed Harris, who quickly aligned the party behind her. Some polls show Harris performing better than Biden in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, though most still suggest a tight race. "We just watched a rocket ship take off with Kamala Harris," Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said during a briefing with reporters earlier this month, pointing to a wave of media that, for a rare moment, eclipsed the attention Trump generates. The former president's advisers remain bullish about his chances. They insist that Harris and Democrats are caught up in a fleeting moment of excitement with their new nominee, and are confident voters will sour on the vice president as they learn more about her past comments and positions. They intend to spend the race's final stretch painting her as a liberal extremist and contrasting the candidates' differing approaches on the economy, crime and immigration. "President Trump has continued to speak about sky-high inflation that has crushed American families, an out-of-control border that threatens every community, and rampant crime while Kamala Harris continues to hide from the press," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, adding that Trump "will be barnstorming battleground states all across the country to prosecute the case against a weak, failed and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris." In Asheville, North Carolina, where Trump used an event billed as a major economic speech to go on tangents about Harris' laugh and Biden's son Hunter, 75-year-old Mary Ray said Trump "needs to stop the personal attacks." Asked whether she was referring to Trump's most incendiary comments -- calling Harris a "nasty woman" and questioning how she discusses her biracial heritage -- Ray furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Bill Barrow in Asheville, North Carolina, contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Trump will campaign across the country this week as he struggles to adjust to Harris

BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- As Democrats kick off their convention in Chicago, Donald Trump 's campaign is trying to regain its footing after weeks of struggling to adjust to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the opposing ticket. Trump will attempt to undercut the Democratic celebration with a jam-packed schedule that includes daily events in battleground states tied to subjects where Republicans think they hold an advantage. It's his busiest campaign week since the winter, when he faced challengers in the Republican primary. But when Trump has held events billed as policy speeches throughout the campaign, they have often resembled his usual, rambling rally remarks. And as has long been the case during his political career, Trump has undercut his own message with outbursts and attacks that drown out anything else. The former president and Republican nominee has appeared at times in denial about the reality that Harris, and not President Joe Biden, is now his rival. He's launched deeply personal attacks, lied about her crowds by claiming images of them were generated by AI, and played on racist tropes by questioning her racial identity as she runs to become the country's first Black female and first South Asian president. The outbursts have alarmed allies, who worry Trump is damaging his chance in what they believe is an eminently winnable race. Privately and publicly, they have urged him to focus on policy instead of personality, and to do more to broaden his appeal with swing voters as they grow more nervous about Harris' competitiveness. "If you have a policy debate for president, he wins," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election." Trump is scheduled to appear Monday in Pennsylvania to talk about the economy and energy, Tuesday in Michigan to talk about crime and safety, and Wednesday in North Carolina to talk about national security at a joint appearance with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. On Thursday, he'll travel to the southwest border in Arizona to talk about immigration before going Friday to Arizona and Nevada. Graham said he wanted Trump to focus on what he would do on the economy and the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing, "Policy is the key to the White House." Some people at his rallies agreed with that advice. "He needs to quit talking about Biden other than Harris piggybacking on those policies," said Kory Jeno, a 53-year-old from Swannanoa, North Carolina, who was waiting to see Trump speak last week in nearby Asheville. "He needs to keep the conversation on the issues and what he's doing to do for Americans instead of running off on tangents where he's just bashing her and that sort of thing." The challenge for Republicans was on display last Thursday, when Trump invited reporters to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, to talk about the economy. As he stood before an assortment of grocery store items, Trump largely stuck to his intended message during the first half-hour, talking about rising prices and blaming Biden and Harris for enacting policies he blamed for spiking inflation. He was unusually diplomatic, including in responding to criticism from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who said last week Trump should be spending his time working to appeal to suburban women, college-educated voters, independents, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats instead of his base. "I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb," Haley said. But Trump didn't take Haley's advice when asked separately whether he needed to run a more disciplined campaign and pivot away from personal attacks against Harris. "I'm angry at her," he said. "I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president." He then gave Democrats new fodder at an event later that night with Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars helping Trump regain the White House. As he described giving her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, he said it was "much better" than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. "Everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead," Trump told an audience. "She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman." The comment was immediately blasted by the Harris campaign and by some veterans as disrespectful to service members, just as Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have tried to raise doubts about the National Guard record of Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. On Saturday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump repeatedly swerved again from a message focused on the economy to personal attacks against Harris, including a declaration that he is "much better looking" than she is. Trump's struggles come after an extraordinary stretch that has completely upended the campaign. Just one month ago, Republicans gathered at their national convention in Milwaukee were elated about their chances. Trump had just survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and was being hailed by his most ardent supporters as a messiah-like figure saved by God to save the nation. Biden, his opponent, was facing growing pressure from his party to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance in which he struggled at times to complete sentences. His campaign signaled it would pull back from Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia that it had flipped from Trump four years ago. But just three days after the convention closed, Biden ended his bid and endorsed Harris, who quickly aligned the party behind her. Some polls show Harris performing better than Biden in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, though most still suggest a tight race. "We just watched a rocket ship take off with Kamala Harris," Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said during a briefing with reporters earlier this month, pointing to a wave of media that, for a rare moment, eclipsed the attention Trump generates. The former president's advisers remain bullish about his chances. They insist that Harris and Democrats are caught up in a fleeting moment of excitement with their new nominee, and are confident voters will sour on the vice president as they learn more about her past comments and positions. They intend to spend the race's final stretch painting her as a liberal extremist and contrasting the candidates' differing approaches on the economy, crime and immigration. "President Trump has continued to speak about sky-high inflation that has crushed American families, an out-of-control border that threatens every community, and rampant crime while Kamala Harris continues to hide from the press," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, adding that Trump "will be barnstorming battleground states all across the country to prosecute the case against a weak, failed and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris." In Asheville, North Carolina, where Trump used an event billed as a major economic speech to go on tangents about Harris' laugh and Biden's son Hunter, 75-year-old Mary Ray said Trump "needs to stop the personal attacks." Asked whether she was referring to Trump's most incendiary comments -- calling Harris a "nasty woman" and questioning how she discusses her biracial heritage -- Ray furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Bill Barrow in Asheville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

Trump will campaign across the country this week as he struggles to adjust to Harris

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) -- As Democrats kick off their convention in Chicago, Donald Trump 's campaign is trying to regain its footing after weeks of struggling to adjust to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the opposing ticket. Trump will attempt to undercut the Democratic celebration with a jam-packed schedule that includes daily events in battleground states tied to subjects where Republicans think they hold an advantage. It's his busiest campaign week since the winter, when he faced challengers in the Republican primary. But when Trump has held events billed as policy speeches throughout the campaign, they have often resembled his usual, rambling rally remarks. And as has long been the case during his political career, Trump has undercut his own message with outbursts and attacks that drown out anything else. The former president and Republican nominee has appeared at times in denial about the reality that Harris, and not President Joe Biden, is now his rival. He's launched deeply personal attacks, lied about her crowds by claiming images of them were generated by AI, and played on racist tropes by questioning her racial identity as she runs to become the country's first Black female and first South Asian president. The outbursts have alarmed allies, who worry Trump is damaging his chance in what they believe is an eminently winnable race. Privately and publicly, they have urged him to focus on policy instead of personality, and to do more to broaden his appeal with swing voters as they grow more nervous about Harris' competitiveness. "If you have a policy debate for president, he wins," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election." Trump is scheduled to appear Monday in Pennsylvania to talk about the economy and energy, Tuesday in Michigan to talk about crime and safety, and Wednesday in North Carolina to talk about national security at a joint appearance with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. On Thursday, he'll travel to the southwest border in Arizona to talk about immigration before going Friday to Arizona and Nevada. Graham said he wanted Trump to focus on what he would do on the economy and the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing, "Policy is the key to the White House." Some people at his rallies agreed with that advice. "He needs to quit talking about Biden other than Harris piggybacking on those policies," said Kory Jeno, a 53-year-old from Swannanoa, North Carolina, who was waiting to see Trump speak last week in nearby Asheville. "He needs to keep the conversation on the issues and what he's doing to do for Americans instead of running off on tangents where he's just bashing her and that sort of thing." The challenge for Republicans was on display last Thursday, when Trump invited reporters to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, to talk about the economy. As he stood before an assortment of grocery store items, Trump largely stuck to his intended message during the first half-hour, talking about rising prices and blaming Biden and Harris for enacting policies he blamed for spiking inflation. He was unusually diplomatic, including in responding to criticism from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who said last week Trump should be spending his time working to appeal to suburban women, college-educated voters, independents, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats instead of his base. "I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb," Haley said. But Trump didn't take Haley's advice when asked separately whether he needed to run a more disciplined campaign and pivot away from personal attacks against Harris. "I'm angry at her," he said. "I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president." He then gave Democrats new fodder at an event later that night with Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars helping Trump regain the White House. As he described giving her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, he said it was "much better" than the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. "Everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead," Trump told an audience. "She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman." The comment was immediately blasted by the Harris campaign and by some veterans as disrespectful to service members, just as Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have tried to raise doubts about the National Guard record of Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. On Saturday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump repeatedly swerved again from a message focused on the economy to personal attacks against Harris, including a declaration that he is "much better looking" than she is. Trump's struggles come after an extraordinary stretch that has completely upended the campaign. Just one month ago, Republicans gathered at their national convention in Milwaukee were elated about their chances. Trump had just survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and was being hailed by his most ardent supporters as a messiah-like figure saved by God to save the nation. Biden, his opponent, was facing growing pressure from his party to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance in which he struggled at times to complete sentences. His campaign signaled it would pull back from Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia that it had flipped from Trump four years ago. But just three days after the convention closed, Biden ended his bid and endorsed Harris, who quickly aligned the party behind her. Some polls show Harris performing better than Biden in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, though most still suggest a tight race. "We just watched a rocket ship take off with Kamala Harris," Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said during a briefing with reporters earlier this month, pointing to a wave of media that, for a rare moment, eclipsed the attention Trump generates. The former president's advisers remain bullish about his chances. They insist that Harris and Democrats are caught up in a fleeting moment of excitement with their new nominee, and are confident voters will sour on the vice president as they learn more about her past comments and positions. They intend to spend the race's final stretch painting her as a liberal extremist and contrasting the candidates' differing approaches on the economy, crime and immigration. "President Trump has continued to speak about sky-high inflation that has crushed American families, an out-of-control border that threatens every community, and rampant crime while Kamala Harris continues to hide from the press," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, adding that Trump "will be barnstorming battleground states all across the country to prosecute the case against a weak, failed and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris." In Asheville, North Carolina, where Trump used an event billed as a major economic speech to go on tangents about Harris' laugh and Biden's son Hunter, 75-year-old Mary Ray said Trump "needs to stop the personal attacks." Asked whether she was referring to Trump's most incendiary comments -- calling Harris a "nasty woman" and questioning how she discusses her biracial heritage -- Ray furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. "It hurts him with other voters," Ray said. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Bill Barrow in Asheville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

Trump campaign attempts to reset with candidate who sometimes has his own plans

Sorry, a summary is not available for this article at this time. Please try again later. Donald Trump's top brass gathered reporters in West Palm Beach, Fla., this month to showcase the inner workings of the former president's campaign and exude a we-have-it-under-control confidence. As PowerPoints flashed on a screen, they laid out their 90-day plan -- the 11 percent of the U.S. population they had identified as "target persuadables," a ground strategy that would motivate Republicans and discourage Democrats and the five-word frame to dismantle his new rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, as "failed, weak and dangerously liberal." The only thing missing was the candidate, who sat a few miles away at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with his own plans for blowing up the news cycle. Hours after the Aug. 8 briefing ended, Trump appeared on cable news networks for a news conference filled with false or unsupported claims unrelated to the campaign's plan to defeat Harris -- his crowd sizes, the "unconstitutional" elevation of Harris as the nominee, a near-helicopter crash with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown that Brown says never happened. Trump decided to hold a news conference because he heard his team was holding the briefing, but he wanted to talk, according to people familiar with the situation who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions. The reporters who had come to South Florida for a campaign briefing suddenly found themselves with a more pressing story. Most presidential candidates rely on their campaign teams to advise them on what to say, where to say it and how to shift course when trouble arises. But Trump's 2024 campaign operation, much like his 2016 and 2020 operations, runs on the opposite assumption: The candidate follows his instincts, while the campaign tries to keep up -- offering suggestions along the way and adapting on the fly. That dynamic has challenged his team as it seeks to regain momentum after Harris replaced President Joe Biden in the race, with the addition this past week of new advisers to his team and a broadening network of people kibitzing in his ear. Trump campaign officials are barreling forward with their plan, focused on Harris and her record while well aware that there are limits to their control. Advisers and donors are trying to keep Trump focused. At a high-end fundraiser in Aspen last weekend, hotelier Steve Wynn encouraged the former president to stick to the issues at a private roundtable, according to people who attended. His team was mingling with donors at the fundraiser. Trump had gotten frustrated earlier that day after his airplane malfunctioned. At times, Trump has taken pride in having a disciplined operation without the infighting and drama of some previous efforts. But the former president has also mocked the "disciplined" line he often hears in the news media about his campaign. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung described Trump as the "best" candidate in recent history, adding that he had overcome significant obstacles -- including legal prosecutions and an attempted assassination -- while keeping up a steady travel schedule. "President Trump has continued to speak about sky-high inflation that has crushed American families, an out-of-control border that threatens every community and rampant crime while Kamala Harris continues to hide from the press," Cheung said in a statement. For his part, Trump announced Thursday that he is sticking with his campaign's senior leadership of Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita -- unlike in 2016 and 2020, which saw shake-ups at the top of his operation. He has expressed confidence in the campaign's strategy, making a point of attempting to focus his appearances this past week -- such as standing in front of a display of groceries meant to highlight recent inflation -- on driving the message prepared by his advisers. "We want to close it out," Trump said in Bedminister, N.J., when asked about the new hires to his campaign. "We have great people. Susie is fantastic, as you know. And Chris is fantastic. They are leading it." Yet hours later, he kicked off another controversy by downplaying the importance of the Medal of Honor awarded to wounded or dead soldiers while praising a top donor. Trump is spending part of this weekend beginning to prepare for a scheduled Sept. 10 debate with Harris and expressing confidence to allies that he would still win. He was at his New Jersey club, advisers said, with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, his daughter and son-in-law. The new hires this past week include Corey Lewandowski, a campaign manager from Trump's 2016 campaign who had been pushed from the former president orbit after he was accused of assaulting a donor in Las Vegas. Taylor Budowich, a former Trump adviser who has been working for an allied super PAC, is returning to the campaign as an adviser who is expected to travel with Trump. The campaign has recently grown its rapid response and social media teams. It also brought back Tim Murtaugh, a press secretary from the 2020 campaign, and brought in Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump-aligned social media consultant who has worked with the former president's son, Donald Trump Jr. Dan Boyle has been added to do opposition research. Trump described Lewandowski as "a personal envoy," though his exact role remains unclear given his history as a senior adviser. His first public action was to give a quote to Puck News repeating an attack on LaCivita for consulting fees paid by the campaign -- including payments for advertising that LaCivita's firm bought, a normal practice for media strategists used in past campaigns. Lewandowski dismissed the criticism, calling "innuendo," "speculation" and "outright lies." Two people involved in the response said LaCivita and Lewandowski spoke about how to respond to Puck before the statement was sent. But it was immediately seen by some top Trump advisers as a breach of their team ethic, which has previously avoided giving oxygen to such attacks. Some campaign advisers are concerned that it is a sign of problems to come, given Trump's own past practice of fostering tension between members of his senior team. There are other unresolved internal tensions as well. In recent weeks, Trump has attacked a popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at a rally in Atlanta; falsely alleged that a photo enhanced with artificial intelligence inflated the crowd size at a Harris rally; and questioned Harris's Black identity. Those last comments at the National Association of Black Journalists meeting raised particular concerns for his campaign advisers -- who were not with him in Chicago that day, people familiar with the response said. His comments about Kemp were not planned by the campaign, which hoped that the governor would be helpful this fall and that the two could be on good terms even if Trump still did not like him. After the comments made at a Georgia rally, the campaign was flooded with concerned calls, one of these people said. None of those were moves that the campaign leadership sanctioned. During the Aug. 8 briefing of reporters in Florida, one campaign official made it clear that they are aware of the distraction such claims can cause. "Instead of focusing on the issue differences that he wants to focus on, we look for the sensational," one campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address the reporters, said in a way that echoed his view of what reporters wanted. "We understand that's the world we live in. Everything's all about getting the clicks. It is. We get it." A few hours later, Trump went into a long riff about how the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021 -- the day rioters, inspired by him, stormed the U.S. Capitol -- was larger than the audience for Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech. "The biggest crowd I've ever spoken before was that day," he said. The following week in North Carolina, he joked about a speech on the economy. "They say it's the most important subject, but I'm not sure it is," he said, giving a speech that he said his advisers wanted. He deemed it an "intellectual speech." Some Republicans outside the campaign have expressed concern about whether the former president will be able to deliver the message he needs. "I feel between the border crisis and inflation and what you'll likely see this fall with campus unrest, the record for Biden-Harris should be a huge millstone," said Marc Short, an adviser to former vice president Mike Pence. "But I'm not sure that President Trump will prosecute the case in a way that's convincing because he doesn't seem as focused on the policy differences that should be highlighted." The campaign leadership wants the focus to be on Harris, making the case that Trump is the antidote to the problems Democratic governance has created. "Our basic tenet of the case is that when American voters know her, they will not support her," explained a senior adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe strategy. "And it is our job to have American voters know her." Trump put it more concisely in Bedminster: "People don't know who she is." One challenge is that the former president has continued to use advisers who do not answer to his campaign and sometimes work at cross-purposes. Natalie Harp, a longtime personal adviser of Trump who frequently handles his social media posts and prints out documents for him to read, has so far resisted efforts to answer to the larger campaign operation, according to people familiar with the arrangement. When he wants something posted immediately to his Truth Social site -- such as a vow to hold a news conference on election fraud -- she posts it. And she provides him reams of pages of material every day from the internet. At one point, when top aides made suggestions to Harp, she responded that she did not report to the campaign, people briefed on the exchange said. "She has extraordinary power," one person close to Trump said. Cheung described her as "a valued member of the team." Former 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who is not working for Trump at the moment, has also caused concern within the campaign orbit, recently meeting with Trump in Bedminster to discuss her thoughts on the future of the campaign. She had been vocal in her criticism of Trump's selection of Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) as his running mate but has begun telling others that Vance now needs the support of everyone because he is the pick. One longtime Trump adviser said the 2024 campaign had been "drama-free, almost boring" until this summer. But this person said it was always inevitable that when Trump hit a rough patch, he was going to return to figures like Lewandowski. In recent weeks, the former president spent his weekends and evenings complaining about the state of his campaign, this person said, while defending it publicly. On one recent weekend, Trump dialed allies raising concerns and asking questions about the campaign's direction and strategy, this person said. But the following Monday, he again assured top advisers that their jobs were safe and that he did not know where speculation about their fate had come from, the person said. "He is never going to take the blame himself," this person said. "He's not going to say, 'Oh I shouldn't have said this, or maybe we shouldn't have done that.' So there has to be a shake-up." Cheung responded, "This individual must not be paying attention." Marianne Levine contributed to this report.

'This was a coup.' Trump primes supporters to challenge a Harris win.

Sorry, a summary is not available for this article at this time. Please try again later. From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the surprise Democratic presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump began arguing that she was anointed through a "coup" rather than chosen by primary voters. After barely mentioning election integrity at the Republican convention in July, Trump is now casting the upcoming election as "rigged" against him and baselessly labeling any hurdle in his path as election interference. "This was an overthrow of a president. This was an overthrow," Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Saturday, referring to Harris replacing Biden on the ticket. He later added: "They deposed a president. It was a coup of a president. This was a coup." Trump's efforts to undermine confidence in this year's election are reminiscent of the tactics he used in the 2020 campaign and indicate how he could again seek to delegitimize the results if he loses, setting the stage for another combustible fight over the presidency, election and national security experts said. "This is Donald Trump's playbook: 'There's a deep state, they're all out to get me,'" said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official during the Trump administration and is now among his conservative critics. "Even here -- as he's going to have to face a stronger, harder candidate to defeat -- his default is, 'Well, this couldn't possibly be legal. This is a coup. This is wrong,' even though there are no facts to back that up." While some of this is "just for show," Neumann said, Trump and his allies are also setting up the "next version of 'Stop the Steal.'" Trump has long insisted that his political failures are the result of some malevolent force trying to keep him out of power, and he has weakened faith in the U.S. election system despite widespread evidence that the results can be trusted. When asked to comment for this article, Trump's campaign responded with a statement attacking Harris and again characterizing her nomination as part of a "coup." "President Trump and our campaign have never been more confident that we are going to win this election," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. When Trump first ran for president in 2016, he falsely claimed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) stole the Iowa caucuses, and he told his supporters that the general election was "absolutely being rigged" against him. After winning, he falsely said his loss in the popular vote was due to "millions of people who voted illegally." In 2020, he baselessly claimed the influx of mail-in ballots amid the global pandemic led to widespread fraud that cost him the election, and as Congress gathered to certify the results, Trump supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol and tried to halt the process. For months, Trump had boasted that he was on a glide path to victory in a rematch against Biden, and he told his supporters the only way he could lose was if Democrats cheated. But he began ratcheting up his warnings about the election process when Harris began drawing massive crowds and surpassed him in several national and swing state polls, including some in which he had led Biden. Now Trump has refused to say that he will accept the outcome of the election if he loses. "If everything's honest, I'll gladly accept the results. I don't change on that," Trump said in a May interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country." The overarching message, often pushed by Trump himself, is that the race has entered a make-or-break stage in which a shadowy Democratic apparatus is poised to steal Republican votes. While doing this, Trump has tried to deflect attacks that he is a threat to democracy by insisting that he's the true protector of it, recently saying he "took a bullet for democracy" and that Democrats "are the real THREAT TO DEMOCRACY." Through this year's presidential campaign, Trump has portrayed himself as a victim of a Democratic power grab. He blamed his dozens of criminal charges on the Biden administration, accusing his original opponent of weaponizing the judicial system as a form of election interference. Since Harris jumped in the race last month, Trump has repeatedly sought to sow doubts about her integrity. He attacked her racial identity, accusing her of only recently identifying as Black, which is not true. And earlier this month, Trump falsely accused Harris of using artificial intelligence to manipulate a campaign rally photo to make the crowd look larger than it was. He called for her to be "disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and added: "Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!" In reality, Harris attracted a massive crowd. In an Aug. 6 post on Truth Social, Trump presented a fantastical story that envisioned Biden, "whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him," crashing this week's Democratic National Convention to take back the nomination. "They forced him out. It was a coup. We had a coup," Trump said of Biden at an Aug. 9 rally in Bozeman, Mont. "That was the first coup of the history of our country, and it was very successful." Supporters at his rallies have embraced and echoed those sentiments. In Montana, Carol Taylor, 62, said: "The people, the Democrats, are getting cheated, and they don't realize it, because they're not getting to vote for their candidate." "I think that it's almost like a coup to get Kamala Harris in there," said Rachelle Galinski, 55, at a Trump rally in St. Cloud, Minn. Another St. Cloud rallygoer, 35-year-old Jose Chapa Jr., said: "The party that said they stand for democracy didn't even let their people vote for who they wanted to vote for. It's pretty sick." Replacing Biden on the ticket was within the Democratic Party's powers. Though primary voters chose Biden, they technically elected a slate of delegates to choose their nominee. Once Biden dropped out, those delegates were free to pick a replacement, and they almost unanimously chose Harris. Yet, conspiracy theories abound claiming the Democrats circumvented protocol to name Harris as nominee and warning they'll do the same in hopes of defeating Trump. Experts in extremism warn that Trump's use of terms like "coup" to describe Harris's candidacy could rile up his hard-right supporters in ways similar to the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Harris's swift rise has pierced the MAGA movement's certainty of a win in November, they say, putting Trump's most loyal followers on the defensive in ways that analysts say undermines faith in elections and heightens the risk of unrest. Joe Walsh, a former GOP U.S. representative from Illinois who launched a long-shot primary challenge to Trump in 2020, said Trump's attacks on Harris as an illegitimate candidate are resonating with his MAGA base. "They're latching on to this, that what the Democrats just did, that's a coup," Walsh said. "This is what I hear all day. That was the attack on democracy. That's what they're going to do to push back on the legitimate charge that Trump tried to overthrow an election four years ago. I come from MAGA world. It's working. They believe it." On publicly visible message boards, pro-Trump extremists are careful to stop short of calling for a violent response, though they infuse their messages with battle references and pledges of "no compromise, no surrender." "National politics has been more or less upended in the past month," leaving the country "in a much more volatile place," said Kieran Doyle, North America research manager for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a global conflict monitoring group. Even before the tumult of July, Doyle noted, Trump and his supporters had been pushing the idea "of a corrupted system that was trying to prevent him coming back to power at any cost." But there's also a lack of coherence in the messaging in these far-right corners of the internet, as many Trump supporters' arguments seem divided on whether he's likely to lose in November because Democrats have once again rigged the system -- or if he's likely to win and the media is misleading the nation into believing otherwise. Hannah Knowles and Marianne Levine contributed to this report.

Harris holds slight national lead over Trump, Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds

Sorry, a summary is not available for this article at this time. Please try again later. Vice President Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over former president Donald Trump in the presidential election, a notable improvement for Democrats in a contest that a little more than a month ago showed President Joe Biden and Trump in a dead heat, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. As Democrats gather this weekend in Chicago for the upcoming national convention, Harris stands at 49 percent to Trump's 45 percent among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup. When third-party candidates are included in the survey, Harris is at 47 percent and Trump at 44 percent, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 5 percent. In early July, Trump stood at 43 percent, Biden at 42 percent and Kennedy at 9 percent. Given the margin of error in this poll, which tests only national support, Harris's lead among registered voters is not considered statistically significant. The vice president's three-percentage-point advantage in a race that includes third-party candidates is slightly smaller than Biden's 4.5-point popular vote margin in 2020, which translated into an electoral college majority. Though the dynamics of the campaign have shifted since Biden left the race in July, the findings in the new Post-ABC-Ipsos poll continue to point to a tight election in November, when seven swing states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada -- are likely to determine who wins in the electoral college. Other public polls have indicated that Harris has gained ground in most if not all those swing states since Biden left the race, but they, too, show the race in most of those states as being within the range of a normal polling error. One sign of how the shift from Biden to Harris has affected voters' attitudes is on the question of how satisfied people are with the choice of Harris vs. Trump. In July, when the contest was still Biden vs. Trump, 28 percent of voters overall said they were satisfied with the choice. Today, 44 percent say they are satisfied with the choice of Harris or Trump. The biggest shift in sentiment has come among Democrats. Last month, 20 percent of Democrats said they were satisfied with the choice of Biden vs. Trump. Now, with Harris as the party's nominee, 60 percent of Democrats express satisfaction with the current matchup. A 62 percent majority of Harris voters say they support her "strongly," compared with 34 percent of those who supported Biden last month. That change has been palpable as Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have barnstormed through battleground states, drawing huge and enthusiastic crowds. The rallies have been so large that they appear to have unsettled Trump, who falsely claimed that photos of turnout for the Democratic ticket at one event were fake and generated by artificial intelligence. The new poll comes after a remarkable series of events that began with Biden's disastrous performance in the June 27 CNN debate in Atlanta. The weakness Biden displayed that night prompted ever-increasing calls from leading Democrats for him to stand down as they feared that his continued presence at the top of the ticket could put not only the White House in jeopardy but also lead to the loss of the Senate and the failure to regain the majority in the House. Biden yielded to the pressure on July 21 and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination. That handoff was unprecedented at this point in a presidential campaign, and Harris's quick consolidation of her party has dramatically altered the trajectory of the election. Democrats hope to build on the current momentum with their convention in Chicago ahead of a Sept. 10 debate, hosted by ABC News, between the two nominees. In a head-to-head matchup with Trump, Harris has improved her standing over Biden among several key groups in the Democratic coalition, including voters under the age of 40 and independents who lean Democratic. The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll shows her margin over Trump among voters under age 40 at 25 percentage points, compared with Biden's seven-point advantage in July. She also has improved over Biden among independents, who support her by a margin of eight points compared with the two-point margin for Trump last month. That change was concentrated among Democratic-leaning independents, who shifted from 77 percent supporting Biden after the first debate to 92 percent for Harris in the new poll. Black voters' support for Harris is slightly larger than it was for Biden last month: 79 percent supported him then and 83 percent support her now. Among White voters with college degrees, Harris leads Trump by 10 points and is faring about the same as Biden with this group. Among White voters without college degrees, her deficit against Trump is 27 points, also similar to the 31-point deficit for Biden in July. Biden's job approval ratings have hardly changed since he left the race, with 55 percent saying they disapprove of the job he is doing and 37 percent saying they approve -- a net negative of 18 points. Those approval ratings, along with national and swing-state polls showing him trailing Trump, were principal factors in the effort among Democrats to persuade the president to step aside. Harris too has a net negative job approval rating, but less so. In the latest poll, 39 percent say they approve of the job she is doing as vice president, while 49 percent disapprove and 12 percent say they have no opinion -- a net negative of 10 points. Trump does better than either Biden or Harris in a retrospective look at his presidency. Today, 44 percent say they approve of the job he did as president between 2017 and 2021, while 49 percent say they disapprove, a net negative of five points. Almost without exception, these ratings are better than he did when he was in office. But when asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of Trump and Harris "as a person," Trump does worse than Harris. Views of the vice president split almost evenly, with 45 percent expressing a favorable impression and 44 percent an unfavorable one. Trump is net-negative 22 points on favorability, with 35 percent viewing him favorably and 57 percent unfavorably. Another area where Harris stands better than Biden is on personal attributes, where she leads Trump on all five qualities that were measured. Throughout the campaign year and especially after the CNN debate, Trump, 78, had huge advantages over Biden, 81, on mental sharpness and physical health. Today Harris leads Trump on both. Trump led Biden by 30 points on mental sharpness and 31 points on physical health in July. Harris, 59, bests Trump on mental sharpness by nine points and on physical health by 30 points. She also is seen as more honest and trustworthy than Trump, by a margin of 15 points. She has smaller advantages over Trump on questions of which candidate "represents your personal values" (six points) and who "understands the problems of people like you" (seven points). The percentage of American adults who have an unfavorable view of both -- the so-called "double haters" -- is now 13 percent, down from 19 percent last month when Biden was in the campaign. Among this group, Trump is heavily favored over Harris. Americans are closely divided on how they would feel if Harris were elected in November, with 50 percent saying they would be either "enthusiastic" or "satisfied but not enthusiastic" and 48 percent saying "dissatisfied but not angry" or "angry." Views on Trump are slightly more negative, with 45 percent expressing a positive reaction to a victory by him and 53 percent a negative reaction, including 34 percent who say they would be angry. That last figure is 13 points higher than those who say they would feel angry if Harris wins. More than 4 in 10 Americans (46 percent) say Harris's views on most issues are "too liberal," while 6 percent say they are "too conservative" and 43 percent say they are "about right." For Trump, 42 percent say his views on issues are too conservative, 9 percent say too liberal and 44 percent say they are "about right." The economy and inflation remain the dominant issues in the election, with about half of all Americans saying each is "one of the single most important" in their choice of a candidate. Four in 10 say protecting American democracy is one of the single most important issues, though Democrats are significantly more likely to cite this issue than are Republicans or independents. Next on the list is the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, though this issue is far more significant to Republicans than to Democrats or independents. Below those issues in significance are a series of others that have been part of the campaign-year dialogue: health care, crime and safety, abortion, gun violence and appointments to the Supreme Court. Democrats are far more likely to cite the last three as important along with health care, while Republicans are more likely to mention crime and safety. Meanwhile, just 14 percent of Americans say the war between Israel and Hamas is one of the single most important issues in their vote this fall. This issue has caused splits within the Democratic coalition this year and unhappiness with Biden's handling of the war. Harris has taken a firmer line than the president in calling for a cease-fire, though she is generally aligned with him on overall policy. Democrats are preparing for protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the Chicago convention next week. A similarly low percentage cite race relations as one of the single most important issues in their vote (13 percent). On a list of 11 issues, Harris is seen as more trusted than Trump on six of them. The former president is more trusted on the economy, inflation, immigration and the Israel-Gaza war. Harris's advantages come on race relations, abortion, health care, protecting democracy, appointments to the Supreme Court and gun violence. Her only double-digit advantages are with the first two: race relations and abortion. Trump holds a 10-point lead on immigration -- though Harris's deficit is four points smaller than was Biden's last month -- and Trump now holds nine-point leads on the economy and inflation. Americans continue to see the economy in negative terms, with 72 percent saying the current economy is either "not so good" or "poor." Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say they believe Harris has had "just some" or "very little" influence on the administration's immigration policies and more than 6 in 10 say she's had limited influence on the administration's economic policies. Democrats are more likely to say she has had more significant influence than are Republicans or independents. Meanwhile, a majority of Americans (56 percent) say Trump had at least a good amount of influence for the Supreme Court's 2022 decision ending the constitutional right to an abortion, which about 3 in 5 Americans oppose. Over 8 in 10 Democrats and over half of the Americans who strongly oppose that ruling say Trump influenced the outcome. The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll was conducted online Aug. 9-13 among 2,336 U.S. adults, including 1,901 registered voters. The sample was drawn through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing panel of U.S. households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus two points for U.S. adults and 2.5 points among registered voters. Error margins are larger among other subgroups.