--- title: Trump Campaign Aims to Undermine Harris at DNC description: As DNC organizers work to lift up Kamala Harris, Trump surrogates will hold daily events at Trump's Chicago hotel attacking her. canonical: https://time.com/7012320/dnc-trump-chicago/ author: Eric Cortellessa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-19T20:50:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:20.204Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Campaign Aims to Undermine Harris at DNC og:description: As DNC organizers work to lift up Kamala Harris, Trump surrogates will hold daily events at Trump's Chicago hotel attacking her. og:url: https://time.com/7012320/dnc-trump-chicago/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc7e0fd64ae8a70c/698a5a0c457a5261f5d6aa7e/GettyImages-2166234793.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds News Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Campaign Aims to Undermine Harris at DNC twitter:description: As DNC organizers work to lift up Kamala Harris, Trump surrogates will hold daily events at Trump's Chicago hotel attacking her. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc7e0fd64ae8a70c/698a5a0c457a5261f5d6aa7e/GettyImages-2166234793.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Campaign Aims to Undermine Harris Each Day of DNC > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=20b05121-abb3-4a59-a424-7c05f65d9358&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: ‘The Future Is Here’: The Biggest Moments from Hillary Clinton’s 2024 DNC Speech [Watch (HLS stream): ‘The Future Is Here’: The Biggest Moments from Hillary Clinton’s 2024 DNC Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dBGwIZgP.m3u8) (4:36)  _Published 2024-08-20. Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention as the first woman to lead a major party’s presidential ticket, hoping to break the proverbial glass ceiling. On Monday night, she was back on the DNC stage—only this time in a slightly different role._  by [Eric Cortellessa / Chicago](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa / Chicago Senior Correspondent Aug 19, 2024 8:50 PM UTC  Former President Donald Trump during a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, on Aug. 15, 2024 Former President Donald Trump during a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, on Aug. 15, 2024 Bing Guan—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Eric Cortellessa / Chicago](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa / Chicago Senior Correspondent Aug 19, 2024 8:50 PM UTC Donald Trump spent two years preparing to run against Joe Biden. The former President’s campaign [crafted](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-campain-election-2024-susie-wiles-chris-lacivita/678806/) a surgical strategy aimed at tearing down a specific opponent. But now that Democrats are set to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s team is not throwing away the old playbook. Throughout this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Trump’s campaign plans to hold daily press conferences at his local Trump Hotel to puncture the Democrats’ reintroduction of Harris to the nation. Specifically, Trump aides say, they will associate Harris with Biden’s policies—or what they estimate are his biggest vulnerabilities. “There is a race to tell Americans who don't know her who she is,” senior Trump adviser Brian Hughes tells TIME. “She owns everything that's happened in the White House. She's not a new thing. She's been in office, advocating for all of these policies.” On Monday, Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin held an hour-long event with reporters on the economy, lambasting “Bidenomics” as responsible for the ravages of inflation triggered after the Covid-induced supply chain crisis. The two lawmakers stood at a Trump podium wedged between posters outlining price increases on everything from baked goods and baby food to meat, poultry, and fish. For the rest of the week, different surrogates will hold daily morning press conferences on Trump’s other core themes: on Tuesday, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida will focus on crime; on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida will focus on national security; and on Thursday, the focus will be on immigration, though the Trump campaign has yet to finalize the messenger. “We wanted to make sure at least have a messaging event every day here in Chicago,” says Hughes. The plan reveals a central Trump campaign strategy with less than three months until the election: tack Harris to Biden as much as possible. The President, who currently has only a 37% [approval rating](https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/), was losing to Trump in most polls before he dropped out of the race last month. Since then, Harris swiftly consolidated support among her party’s delegates and engineered a reversal in Trump’s polling momentum. Multiple [recent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/tablet/2024/08/15/aug-9-13-2024-washington-post-abc-news-ipsos-poll/) [surveys](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-poll-kamala-harris-policies-trump-democratic-convention-2024/) show Harris with at least a 3% edge over Trump nationally, while a _New York Times_/Siena College poll published over the weekend [shows](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/elections/kamala-harris-trump-az-nc-ga-nv.html) her gaining ground in critical swing states. At the same time, her favorability rating is 10 points higher than Biden’s, [according](https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-favorability-ap-poll-b2a725729afe91851d89644fd97eb6e2) to an AP/NORC survey. Even Trump’s own pollster [acknowledges](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4788574-trump-polls-harris-honeymoon-biden-2024/) that she’s likely to enjoy a post-convention bump. Harris has sought to thread a needle between honoring the President under whom she still serves and trying to carve out an identity independent of him. Last week, she [rolled out](https://time.com/7011865/kamala-harris-economic-plan-groceries-child/) an economic agenda that included expanding the child tax credit, with $6,000 for families with newborns, and implementing a price-gouging ban at grocery stores. Over the coming week, Democratic stars such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are expected to give rousing speeches at the United Center extolling a reborn party with a new standard-bearer. To that end, Trump’s campaign plans to make its counterargument each morning, just a few miles down the road. “She was the co-pilot of the ship for the last three and a half years,” says Hughes. ## Transcript There's a lot of energy in this room, just like there is across the country. Something something is happening in America. You can feel it. Something we've worked for and dreamed of for a long time. First, though, Let's salute President Biden. And then there was 2016 when it was the honor of my life to accept our party's nomination for president. And nearly 66 million Americans voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams. And afterwards, we refused to give up on America. Millions marched, many ran for office. We kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here. I wish my mother and Koala's mother could see us. They would say, Keep going. Sly and Jerry would say. Keep going. As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial. And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history, the first person to run for president with felony convictions. As Vice President? As Vice President, Kamala sat in the situation room. But we also know, as Vice President Kamala sat in the situation room and stood for America's values. I know what it takes, and I can tell you, as commander in chief, Kamala won't disrespect our military and our veterans. She she reveres our medal of honor recipients. She won't be sending love letters to dictators. She will defend democracy and our Constitution, and will protect America from enemies, foreign and domestic. Aerica needs every one of us. O energy, our talents, our dreams. We're not just electing a president. We're uplifting our nation. We're opening the promise of America wide enough for everyone. Together, we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. 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