Trump campaign rally break as Harris, Walz, Vance travel

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to stay off the presidential campaign rally circuit until after the Democratic National Convention, which ends on Aug. 22.

Speaking at a wide-ranging press conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump was asked why he had not been “campaigning this week.”

“Because I’m leading by a lot and because I’m letting their convention go through and I am campaigning a lot,” Trump replied.

The reporter followed up. “Are you going to pick up your travel?”

“After their convention, yeah,” Trump replied, referring again to the Democratic convention, which runs from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22.

The pace and the plan for the Republican presidential nominee’s August this year is a stark departure from what Trump’s schedule looked like in August of 2016, the last time he campaigned for president in person.

That month, Trump held 27 raucous campaign rallies across 15 states. When he wasn’t filling stadiums, Trump seemed to live on his plane, jetting between battleground states and fundraisers and phoning in to interviews — all while running his family’s real estate business.

By contrast, Trump has only held one rally so far this month.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Democratic opponents, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — as well as his Republican running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — have all spent the week barnstorming presidential battleground states.

After debuting their partnership Tuesday night at a rally in Philadelphia, Harris and Walz spoke at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. The pair will head to events in Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. All five states are highly competitive in November’s election.

For the past five days, Trump has been at his resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he has conducted phone interviews and podcasts, and where he held Thursday’s hourlong press conference.

Trump’s public schedule also appears to confirm his stated plan to cut back his rally travel in the coming weeks. The only event currently posted on the Trump campaign website’s “Events” page is a rally on Friday in Montana that will partly benefit GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy.