Re: Slogan
Amid nationwide protests and a historic economic contraction, President Trump is running for reelection to "Keep America Great" — at least according to the hats he sells on his campaign website, the signs waved by his supporters and the television ads he's airing in key states.
But in recent weeks he has retreated to contradictory slogans with a less triumphant ring, repeatedly reviving his 2016 motto "Make America Great Again!" and trying out new catchphrases like "Transition to Greatness!" and "The Best Is Yet to Come," a Frank Sinatra lyric etched on the crooner's tombstone.
Phrases such as "Promises Made, Promise Kept," once a cornerstone of the reelection campaign, have been subsumed by current events. Economic messaging still used by the campaign online, including boasts about low unemployment, is now woefully out of date.
The search for a slogan, which Trump confidants say he is likely to resolve in the coming weeks, is a symptom of the president's larger problem: The booming economy that he assumed would be his chief argument for reelection has foundered for the moment, a casualty of a coronavirus crisis he initially downplayed and more recently has sought to move beyond.
On issues compelling to most Americans — health, economy and national unrest about police violence — Trump has offered few new proposals, relying on pointed warnings that Democrats and their liberal ideas would make the country worse. On Friday, asked whether he had a plan to address systemic racism that has sent millions of Americans to the streets — some in view of the White House — he replied: "That's what my plan is: We're going to have the strongest economy in the world."
The president and his top political advisers met Thursday afternoon to discuss how Trump should make his case and how he could improve his standing among voters, a person familiar with the meeting said. Participants included senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, campaign manager Brad Parscale, his recently elevated deputy Bill Stepien and campaign pollsters. Trump was also presented with "tough" swing state polls from his political team in the Oval Office.
A larger group of aides then briefed Trump on their communications strategy — from how to sell the economic recovery to how to attack former vice president Joe Biden, according to people attending the meeting. Trump was described as in a good mood, forecasting that the economy would recover, people familiar with the larger RNC and campaign aides discussion said.
Some inside Trump's inner circle say the "Keep America Great" reelection brand and the "Sleepy Joe" nickname for Biden are not likely to be as prominent in the future. "When the president decides, there will be a new slogan and there will be new ads," said one Trump campaign adviser, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has used the slogan "Great American Comeback" to incorporate the recent economic setbacks and thinks there should be additional branding of Biden that focuses more squarely on what she said was his "decades-long lackluster establishment record," calling him "the Loch Ness monster of the Washington swamp."
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The struggle to define Trump's reelection effort is a sharp departure from his first campaign for president, which was marked by biting branding that defined the election cycle. After a lifetime in business spent marking his brand on everything from hotels to steaks, he dispatched opponents with nicknames that stuck such as "Crooked Hillary" and "Lying Ted," while electrifying his crowds with unforgettable phrases such as "Build the Wall" and "Drain the Swamp."
So far this year, as multiple crises have forced Trump to shift direction, Republicans have reacted with concern and Democrats have celebrated the relative incoherence in Trump's strategy.
"I don't know what their core message is right now, because they are falling victim to having to respond every day to the crisis of the moment," said a former White House official. "This is a big issue because if you go back to 2016, the main strength of the Trump campaign was a consistent message. It's paradoxical because Trump is always all over the place, but there was a core that he was communicating."
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But even before the crises hit this year, he was hosting debates about his best slogan, both in public at campaign rallies and in private meetings at the White House. Last July, during a meeting with campaign aides and political advisers, he expressed concern about switching from 2016's "Make America Great Again" to "Keep America Great."
"This better work, fellas," he told others in the room about the slogan switch, according to two people with knowledge of the exchange. "I'd be the only idiot in the world to give up a brand like that and then lose."
He also asked an aide to go into the Oval Office to get two hats. One said "Keep America Great" and one said "Keep America Great!" with an exclamation point. It was decided, people familiar with the meeting said, to not use the exclamation point on the hats, though the punctuation has remained on the campaign signage. One of the stated concerns was that former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a Trump antagonist, had used an exclamation point in his campaign logo in 2016.
"Everyone kind of agreed that Keep America Great is the way to go," said one of the people familiar with the conversation.
That was months before a viral pandemic, an economic collapse and a national outpouring of rage over racist policing practices reshaped the electoral battlefield and forced the campaign to reshuffle its stated strategy.
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Though some of the positive spots include passing shots at Biden, other Democrats and the press, they are more notable for the variety of language they use. They include "Keep America Great" branding, but one of them also includes a voice-over of Trump saying "Make America Great Again." The most frequently aired spot calls Trump "a bull in a china shop," and uses a new set of tag lines, including "Mr. Nice Guy won't cut it" and "Donald Trump gets it done."
By contrast, Biden has stayed consistent since the start of the Democratic primaries with the central theme of his campaign: "Restoring the Soul of the Nation." His advisers have privately begun to make light of Trump's attempts label their candidate.
Biden's top political strategist, Mike Donilon, said Trump's inability to accomplish the planned shift from "Make America Great Again" to "Keep America Great" is a perilous sign for the Republican's campaign.
"He is scrambling. He has said something about 'transition to greatness,' which is an admission of failure," Donilon said. "There is no message from Donald Trump. What there is, is a demolition derby."
Trump's campaign advisers are banking on an economic recovery in the coming months to erase this deficit and resolve any confusion about the campaign's message. The president was ebullient on Friday when the Labor Department announced a surprise gain of 2.5 million jobs in May, against predictions of giant losses.
"The president is extremely confident that the economy will rebound quickly and forcefully. It will make his original economic argument even stronger," Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said. "The Democrats view economic recovery as bad politics for them."
The campaign also has been working to soften the edges of Trump's more aggressive statements about the need to "dominate" the protesters causing chaos on the streets. Two days after police used force on Trump's behalf to clear a plaza outside the White House of peaceful protesters, the campaign posted a video called "Healing, not Hatred" that coupled memorial images to George Floyd with words of sympathy Trump delivered last week after the launch of a U.S. space capsule.
The ad has been removed by Facebook, Instagram and Twitter following a complaint from the copyright holder of an image.
More in the link.
