CNN —
President Donald Trump’s schedule for the final days of the 2024 election is dotted with detours into predominantly Democratic states.
From California’s Coachella Valley on Saturday to New York’s Madison Square Garden later this month, the former president will weigh in on battleground states where the Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns expect to decide the race. We are moving away from the months of struggle.
Republicans have no illusions about winning the deep blue states he is visiting. But Trump, who for years refused to concede his 2020 defeat and spread lies about widespread voter fraud, claimed this week that he has more support than Harris in California. He lost by 29 percentage points four years ago.
“If we had an honest election in California, I think I would win in a landslide. I really do,” the former president said on the Southern California talk radio show “The John Cobilt Show” about the state’s mail-in voting process. He spoke while expressing his dissatisfaction.
But President Trump’s allies argue that the blue state stop is more than an undisciplined sideshow to satisfy the whims of Republican candidates.
Although California and New York are Democratic-dominated, their overall size means that they are home to large numbers of Republican voters and donors, providing fundraising opportunities, especially in competitive House races. has been created and is helping to gather votes against candidates.
“I felt like California had a lot of support and I owed them,” Trump told Kobilt, adding that the Coachella Valley rally site is “amazing land.”
These events also give President Trump an opportunity to address the issues facing his state as a result of Democratic leadership.
That’s the strategy Trump used Thursday in Detroit, warning that if Harris wins, “the whole country will end up looking like Detroit.”
But unlike in Michigan’s largest city, Mr. Trump has been able to make similar remarks in blue states, particularly California, where Ms. Harris was attorney general and senator, without worrying about electoral backlash. I can do it.
“President Trump’s visit to Coachella highlights Harris’ history of failure and reassures her that she has the right solutions to save every state and every citizen,” Stephen Chan, President Trump’s communications director, said in a statement. I will show you.”
The Trump campaign is also expected to draw large, raucous crowds and garner significant media attention, which will benefit the entire political map.
“In this nationalized media environment, the location of his rallies matters less. His message is reaching all major media markets, regardless of what he does. And the rallies The bigger it is, the more attention it gets, right? I mean, Madison Square Garden? You guys have to cover it,” a senior Trump adviser told CNN.
Mr. Trump’s advisers have argued that the voters his campaign is targeting in the final weeks of the campaign are people who are not normally involved in politics, prompting Mr. Harris to grill Ms. Harris on immigration. Travels like Friday’s trip to Aurora, Colo., to do so, claim to offer much meaningful content. It has a wider online reach than a typical battleground state rally.
It’s the same reason the Trump campaign had the former president sit down with popular YouTube streamers and podcasters. Harris’ campaign has adopted a similar strategy in recent weeks, appearing on podcasts and other interviews to target specific voter groups.
“There’s a reason we’re doing a podcast. There’s a reason we’re doing MMA with Adin Ross. There’s a reason we do what we do.” said one senior Trump adviser.
Trump’s rally at Calhoun Ranch in the Coachella Valley on Saturday drew criticism from many local officials.
Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez said in a statement posted on social media ahead of Trump’s visit that “Trump’s attacks on immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, and the most vulnerable among us are deeply personal. It is inconsistent with the values of our community.”
“He has consistently expressed disdain for the diversity that characterizes Coachella,” Hernandez said. “We don’t know why Mr. Trump is visiting the Coachella area, but we do know that he hasn’t been invited by the people who live here. He’s not like us.”
But the former president believes large rallies in blue states like the one he will hold Saturday show how widespread his support is across the country.
It also set the stage for Trump to question the election results if Harris wins. One of the former president’s defining slogans is that he must win by a landslide so that no one will question his victory.
“He thinks that that crowd has shown, and will continue to show, that there is no way they can beat her,” said a source close to Trump.
In many ways, President Trump views these large rallies as a barometer of his performance. In his mind, the bigger the crowd, the better he expects to be in November.
On Tuesday, President Trump will make another stop in Illinois to attend an event co-sponsored by Bloomberg News and the Economic Club of Chicago.
President Trump also plans to return to New York and has held rallies in the Bronx and Long Island in recent weeks as part of an effort to appeal to nonwhite men who have historically supported the Democratic Party.
The Long Island suspension in September was originally scheduled to coincide with Trump’s sentencing in the New York hush money trial in Manhattan, but the judge overseeing the case ultimately pushed the date back to after the election.
Meanwhile, at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, President Trump will be given the legendary theater in his hometown, just over a week from Election Day.
President Trump has long teased a rally at Madison Square Garden. However, people close to the former president have been hesitant to announce the rally even after a deal is reached, citing the possibility of outside pressure to withdraw from the venue, especially from influential New Yorkers. Ta.
Trump lost the Empire State by more than 20 points in both 2016 and 2020, but argued at a Long Island rally in September that he had a chance to win the state in November.
A source close to Trump said: “President Trump has become increasingly obsessed with the idea that his supporters in states that are not critical to the 2024 election deserve an opportunity to meet with him and attend rallies.” “There is,” he said. “In some cases, these events can attract even more attention because they are the only opportunity many people have to attend a rally.”
President Trump has expressed confidence in how he will perform in the blue states he visits. He claimed Friday in Aurora that he is “very close” to a reliably Democratic state, but there is no evidence to support that claim.
Still, the main strategic purpose of these trips is to hit Democrats on the issues the Trump campaign sees as strongest, such as crime and border security.
President Trump, who has been spreading false and sensational claims that Venezuelan gang members are occupying Colorado, attacked the state’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, on Friday.
“This guy doesn’t see what you see. He doesn’t see people storming into buildings with AK-47s, military weapons that are sometimes better than our military.” said.
President Trump has said that if he wins in November, he will create a federal program to speed up the deportation of gang members who are in the country illegally. He also called for the death penalty for “immigrants who kill American citizens or law enforcement officers.”
Democratic Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump is lying about immigration crimes in Colorado, but from a political standpoint, he can see the former president in the state. He said he was somewhat “happy.”
“There’s no way he can beat Colorado State,” Bennett said. “So from a political standpoint, I think this was a complete waste of his time.”
