Since winning the Indiana primary May 3, the Trump campaign looked forward to maintaining momentum heading into the general election, only to watch its lead against Democratic presumptive nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton vanish. While GOP presumptive nominee real estate mogul Donald Trump welcomed a Rasmussen poll yesterday showing him leading Hillary 49%-43%, aggregate polling shows Trump down by five percent. Meeting on Sunday, June 24 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd, Trump’s 67-year-old campaign Chairman Paul Manafort denied he was worried about the polls. “We’re confident that we are not behind the Clinton campaign,” said Manafort, despite aggregate polling showing Trump in a five percent hole. Trump’s sinking poll numbers should be grounds for concern for Manafort and the Trump campaign.
If nothing else, Hillary’s proved that she has a well-oiled public relations campaign against Trump, feeding broadcast and print media as much negative content as possible. Since the euphoria over winning the campaign lifted, Trump let Hillary define him in the press, hitting Trump with everything but the kitchen sink. It’s now the mainstream media’s narrative that Hillary’s rolling to the White House with Trump more marginalized than ever. “Why am I not doing better in the polls,” Trump asked the conservative Mike Gallagher’s radio talk show. Manafort needs to tell Trump about the necessity of running a more coherent media campaign against Hillary, lining all his best ducks up to discredit her candidacy. Without a dedicated costly media blitzkrieg, it won’t get done. Lagging in fund-raising and organization, Manafort needs to hit the ground running with a vigorous media campaign.
Getting big crowds is a good thing for Trump but won’t change the race until he commits to a vigorous media blitz, defending his positions and attacking Hillary. “I was in West Virginia, the crowds are massive. And you know, I walked out of one, and I said, ‘I don’t see how I’m not leading,’” said Trump, forgetting the important role of media advertising. Since media buys didn’t make-or-brake his primary campaign, Trump looks like he’s followed the same path in the general election—a big mistake. Hillary’s campaign admitted June 20 to committing $117 million to negative ads against Trump. Whatever happened in the primaries, Manafort needs to urge Trump to start spending on massive strategic communications and ad buys. Hillary’s got a big head start on negative ad buys, prompting the Trump campaign to go into overdrive to catch up. Ramping up Trump’s strategic communication strategy is a must.
Every speech, interview or public utterance is being challenge by the Hillary campaign. Trump opens his mouth and Hillary’s strategic communication team takes everything out of context and is ready to attack. Not responding nimble enough to Hillary’s or her surrogate’s attacks has put Trump in a hole heading into the July 4 holiday. With the Cleveland Republican National Convention three weeks away, Manafort has his work cut out ramping up Trump’s strategic communications strategy. Hillary’s done a good job of defining Trump as a misogynist, racist but, more recently, unfit for the presidency. Using campaign surrogates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Hillary hammers away, telling the public Trump lacks the experience and temperament for the White House. Without a coherent counter-offensive, Trump will continue to lag in the polls.
Blitzing the op-ed pages, radio and TV talks shows with his own surrogates, Trump needs an all-out communication blitz to confront Hillary’s winning strategy. Instead of waiting for the RNC convention, Trump needs to move full steam ahead with a multi-pronged media strategy, most importantly developing consistent talking points about Hillary’s failed domestic and foreign policy. While there’s still an outside chance she’ll be indicted for violating the U.S. Espionage Act, sending and receiving classified or Top Secret information, there’s much the voting public needs to hear about Hillary past foreign policy mistakes and shenanigans at the Clinton Foundation. Hillary’s isn’t concerned about fact-checking her attacks on Trump, nor should Trump worry about pulling any punches. Getting out the message in print, on-air, in social media or any other place is what counts.
Trump’s lagging behind in the polls because Hillary beat him to the punch with a well executed strategic communication strategy. Defining Trump as a loose cannon, Hillary accomplished her mission of discrediting his campaign. It’s now time for Trump to fight-fire-with-fire, defining Hillary with specific policy problems, especially her backing of the Saudi proxy war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Whatever the FBI finds in Hillary’s emails, it pales in comparison to the Clinton Foundation receiving millions from Saudi Arabia and Gulf States, in exchange for a U.S. foreign policy rubber stamping the Saudis. With over 250,000 dead, 11 million displaced from Syria, it’s been called the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Hillary’s Syria policy pits the U.S. against Moscow, threatens the European Union and pushed the U.K. to reject EU membership.
