Trump allies ratchet up pressure to refocus message and increase campaign intensity

There is mounting pressure on Donald Trump to abandon his race-focused, off-message criticism of Kamala Harris and hasten his return to the campaign trail to talk about the issues at stake as the Republican nominee works to navigate a new state of play in the presidential race.

Some feedback has been private, with lawmakers, donors and informal outside advisers asking Trump and top campaign aides directly to stick to the issues and drop the race- or personality-driven attacks, according to four sources briefed on the discussions.

“When we’re able to effectively put Biden’s record on her, it will go back to what it was before,” said an outside adviser who is familiar with the dynamics of the race but was not authorized to speak publicly. “Everybody knows what needs to be done.”

Trump's allies agreed that he will require an “all of the above” strategy to prevail that includes a faster pace and a level of message discipline that he has wavered from in recent weeks.

“He did it in 2016 and in 2020 got close,” the outside adviser said. “When he goes out to these states, he has the ability to make it a positive message. And look, it’s simple, contrast her message with his.”

The hope is that Trump will shift his focus after a stretch of days when he questioned Harris’ racial identity in an interview at a conference for Black journalists, offered unfounded conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden's decision to step away from the race and criticized Brian Kemp, the popular Republican governor of Georgia, a key state where Trump’s campaign has ramped up ad purchases.

Trump's staff is working to notch what it considers incremental wins over time in persuading him to shift his message — quieting the swipes at Harris' racial identity by refusing to give the comments air and showing him the bad press that results, a senior member of the Trump campaign told NBC News.

Trump’s allies are also publicly making their pitch for him to refocus his attention on the race. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., went on Fox News on Monday during a program Trump is known to watch and urged him to stop questioning the size of Harris’ crowds and instead probe her positions on the border, crime and inflation.

“You’ve got a short time frame to do it, so don’t sit back. Get out there and start making the case,” McCarthy said.

Trump campaigned for Montana Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy in Bozeman on Friday and has just one campaign rally this week in Asheville, North Carolina — a state he won in 2020 and 2016 and is considered on the cusp of being a swing state. Trump has one additional coming swing state event that has been publicly announced, in Pennsylvania.

“You’ve always got to be assessing the state of the race, and I would like to see more offense from the Trump campaign. Trump, the man, is the campaign’s best asset. Put him out there,” said Dan Eberhart, a major Republican donor who backs Trump. “Immediately after the Democrat convention closes, I would like to see the gloves come off in a full-throated campaign for Trump.”

At a news conference last week at Mar-a-Lago, his home in Florida, Trump said he was not on the campaign trail because he is leading in the race — even as recent polls find Harris closing the advantage he held over Biden. Trump defended his pace, saying he is “competing a lot” and calling the question “stupid.” He also attacked Harris as “nasty” and veered into a diatribe again over her racial identity.

Trump argued that Harris is not ready to have her agenda scrutinized. “She doesn’t want to do interviews, and the reason she doesn’t is, No. 1, her policies are so bad,” he said.

It’s that sentiment that appeared to drive a shift in Trump’s thinking when, after he vowed to ditch an ABC News debate, he said Thursday he would appear on the network after all to face off against Harris. Privately, Trump indicated to allies that he may have little choice but to participate in the ABC News debate if Harris declined other counteroffers because “he has to get her to speak,” according to a source familiar with his comments.

Campaign advisers briefing reporters gave assurances that the fundamentals of the race had not changed, and Trump’s political director took to X to share a granular accounting of the operation’s ground game. A recent national poll by CNBC found Trump and Harris tied — a sign that her upward trajectory may have at least slowed.

Any respite Democrats have enjoyed will not last, Trump said at Mar-a-Lago: “The honeymoon period is going to end.”

Some of Trump's allies believe he can make a stronger case against Harris than he could have against Biden by framing her as “dangerously liberal," as the campaign is doing in new ads.

“We weren’t able to put Biden in the extremist box. Harris will be an easier competitor in that regard,” the adviser said.

Harris has enjoyed a surge of enthusiasm since she replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee, and last month, she raked in a record fundraising haul. On a swing of battleground states last week, Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, were greeted by a groundswell of supporters at each stop.

Harris is also working aggressively to define herself on issues meaningful to voters before Trump and Republicans can — including at a rally Saturday in Las Vegas, where she went so far as to endorse an idea Trump has been pushing, eliminating taxes on tips.

The move, after Harris delivered a tough-on-immigration message a day earlier in Arizona, seemed to incense Trump and his campaign, who accused her of "shape-shifting" her positions to "gaslight" voters. "This was a TRUMP idea — She has no ideas, she can only steal from me," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Harris is also airing a new 30-second spot focused on border security, in which she promises to “hire thousands more border agents.”

Trump and his campaign have been eager to show him outpacing Harris in other ways, noting that she has yet to sit for an interview with reporters since she took over the Democratic Party’s nomination. They also argue that the tide will turn for Harris once voters take full stock of her positions and history.

“President Trump has been gaining ground and leading in battleground states because the Harris-Biden failed policies of record-high inflation, a wide open border, and wars around the world are hurting Americans of all backgrounds, and working families want to return to the days of no inflation, a secure border, cheap gas, and world peace under President Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “As more voters understand how weak, failed, and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris is, President Trump’s chances in these battleground states will only get better.”

The race to define Harris and Walz is set to explode over the coming weeks, with a pro-Trump super PAC launching a $100 million advertising campaign ahead of Labor Day. The commercials, airing in seven key states over the next three weeks, will focus on defining Harris as “a radical extremist who favors criminals over victims, illegal immigrants over American citizens, and inflation-driving policies over jobs for American families,” according to a new memo from MAGA Inc. strategists David Lee and Chris Grant. Politico first reported the plan.

MAGA Inc. is adding ad reservations in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina, and it is expanding a previously announced buy in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. In an appearance on Real America’s Voice last week, Trump’s political director, James Blair, made the case that it is a state-by-state race.

But Republicans see an opportunity for Trump to recapture the enthusiasm of just a few weeks ago, including over the prospect of focusing on Harris' record. “There’s so much stuff, we don’t have enough commercial time,” said an informal adviser who was granted anonymity because the person did not want to get ahead of the campaign.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com