Top Republicans warn Trump to STOP this campaign strategy

Top Republicans warn Trump to STOP this campaign strategy

• Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Peter Navarro and pollster Frank Luntz spoke out
• All three said Trump needed to focus on Kamala Harris' record as vice president
• Each agreed that personal attacks on Harris were unsuccessful

Several top Republicans sounded the alarm on Donald Trump's campaign strategy - including one who said his 'head is exploding' - as Kamala Harriscontinues to take momentum.

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said that Trump has to focus on Harris' record rather than the number of people attending her rallies.

McCarthy told Fox News: 'It’s going to be a race, and you’ve got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime!'

He called Harris 'a perfect person to run against' and 'made a wrong pick when it came to VP' and as long as Trump can focus on that, he will be back in the race.

The ex-California Congressman wasn't alone, however, as Trump's former advisor Peter Navarro had a similar critique of the race the former president has run since Joe Biden dropped out.

'He needs votes, and the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences — policy differences — between him and Kamala Harris that will swing voters in key battleground states, he told Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

Navarro, who spent time in prison for his role in the January 6 insurrection, said that instead, Trump attacks Harris 'personally' and says her 'support among swing voters rises, particularly among women' when he does.

'It’s just a fact of life, right now'.

Frank Luntz, dubbed 'the Nostradamus of pollsters', continued a media tour that has had him pulling the fire alarm over Trump's campaign this past week.

Luntz - who has said that Harris is now favored to win - repeated his message from over the weekend that Trump has lost message discipline.

He claimed that the campaign needs to be about issues and not attributes.

'If it’s about attributes, Harris is much more likely to be successful because, quite frankly, people like her more than they like him. It’s something that if he’s watching this right now, his head is exploding and that’s part of the problem,' he told CNN.

Luntz added: 'He has lost touch with the people that he needs and she is in perfect touch'.

Trump was the red-hot favorite last month when he triumphantly appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee after being shot in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

But after Harris took over from Biden, the liberal media has gone full-swing behind her campaign and she has seized momentum. The latest polling average from Real Clear Politics shows that Harris has a half-point lead over Trump. In the betting averages that lead is higher at 5.8 percentage points.

In one recent example, Harris was more trusted on the economy than Trump - marking a big shift in voter sentiment following Biden's decision to drop out.

The survey, for the Financial Times and the Ross School of Business, found that Harris had a 1-point advantage. It is the first time a Democrat presidential candidate has led Trump on the economy since the poll started tracking voter sentiment on the issue almost a year ago.

Another poll by New York Times / Siena College last week found that Harris has moved ahead in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Among likely voters in each state, 50 percent said they would likely vote for Harris while 46 for Trump.

Donors are worried about Trump's recent strategy, according to The New York Times.

At an August 2 dinner in The Hamptons, Trump's big backers hoped he would 'signal that he was recalibrating after a series of damaging mistakes.'

But he discussed his 'stop the steal' claims about the election being rigged in 2020 which advisers have reportedly told him to drop.

The former president last night risked sparking further concern by falsely claiming that his Democratic opponent had doctored an image of the crowd at her rally last week in Detroit.

Republican sources told Axios over the weekend that the former president is 'struggling to get past his anger.'

The Trump campaign has considered many options to boost the president's efforts, including the return of iconic campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, with the backing of both Melania and Lara Trump.

The 2024 Trump campaign has suffered from a triple blow of vice presidential nominee JD Vance's poor reception from the public, Harris' 'honeymoon period' as she jumps into the race and a similar effect on her choice of running mate Tim Walz.

Now, what had appeared to be a coronation of Trump for a return to the White House over Biden has turned into a neck-and-neck race, with Harris beginning to take a lead in the polls.

However, the 'honeymoon phase' of both Harris' campaign and Walz's announcement appears to be ending with claims of 'stolen valor' over the Minnesota governor's military service.

Biden himself finally admitted Sunday that he dropped out of the race because the polling between himself and Trump was so dire that it threatened to wipe out Democrats up and down the ticket.