Inside Trump’s Oklahoma debacle
- The rally was meant to be a turning point in Trump’s fortunes and efforts to take on Biden. Instead, Trump was furious and his campaign is reeling
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Alex Isenstadt on politico.com on June 21, 2020.
“His lines going after Biden were very effective, particularly on Biden being a tool of the radical left. But I’d like to see that focused message take up more space in the overall speech, because it will resonate with wobbly suburbanites,” said Scott Jennings, who was a top political adviser in the George W. Bush White House. “He shouldn’t waste his best lines in an ocean of stuff that won’t ultimately work or matter.”
This account of what went wrong in Tulsa and the reckoning under way in the aftermath is based on interviews with more than a half-dozen re-election campaign and White House officials. The partly-empty arena was the biggest embarrassment and has received the lion’s share of media attention. But the issues surrounding the rally – an event that his advisers unanimously saw as a turning point for Trump – extended beyond crowd size and raised questions about the strength of his campaign less than five months until the election.