Jared Kushner reportedly warned Trump to lay off the Joe Biden taunts. He obviously didn't listen.
President Trump's staffers think his nicknames could cost him 2020.
As Trump gears up to take on one of nearly two dozen Democrats next year, his aides — including his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner — have decided his campaign won't focus on the massive opposing field just yet. Except Trump has clearly not taken that advice, and it has at least one adviser convinced it'll push former Vice President Joe Biden to the top of the Democratic field, Politico reports.
When Democrats started filing into the presidential race earlier this year, Kushner explicitly warned Trump campaign officials against "targeting specific Democratic presidential hopefuls," Politico reports via a person familiar with Kushner's strategy. Getting involved in the primaries was "at best a waste of time — and could even be counterproductive," Kushner reportedly warned, Politico continues. Yet as Trump's Twitter feed, rally speeches, and growing nickname arsenal indicate, the president has ignored that advice.
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Trump has most notably taken to railing against Biden, something one adviser tells Politico "we've asked him — I've personally asked him — to stop." After all, Trump's campaigners "don't think Biden can make it out of the woke Democrat primary," the adviser said, but added that "he will if the president gives him oxygen." A second Trump adviser told Politico that "smart guys" like Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale are probably "telling [Trump] to stop this, and he's telling them to go f--k themselves."
Still, some Trump 2016 veterans argue with the current strategy, with one telling Politico it's smart to attack Biden if he's "front page of every paper" and "leading every single newscast" already. Read about both sides at Politico.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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