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The Conversation with Dasha Burns

Normal Trump vs. Dangerous Trump

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

Government, Politics, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Election Day is less than two weeks away. And Donald Trump has been employing an innovative strategy to keep Democrats’ — and an increasingly large number of Republicans’ — doubts about his fitness for office at bay. The former president has been burnishing his image on a nontraditional media spread of podcasts, golf outings, and shifts working at McDonald's.  To understand Trump’s own thinking about the campaign, including the risks of this unorthodox strategy and the most recent indictments of his character, Playbook co-author Rachael Bade sat down with one of his most trusted advisers: Jason Miller. Miller and Trump have a long history together. He’s worked on each of Trump’s campaigns since 2016, in roles ranging from comms guru to senior strategist, and he isn’t afraid to elaborate on the campaign’s strategy or defend Trump’s most controversial comments. Rachael Bade is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. Jason Miller is a senior adviser to President Donald Trump. Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.  Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act will restore life-saving insurance protections for dialysis patients and prevent a patient spouse and kids from being forced off of their health insurance.

0:13.0

It's bipartisan and urgently needed to protect dialysis patients and their family's health care coverage.

0:19.0

The time to act is now. A danger to democracy, a fascist, unfit to serve. In the closing days of the election, Kamala Harris is sharpening her

0:34.2

closing message that a president who tried to overturn the 2020 election cannot be

0:39.2

trusted. Days ago that argument got a ringing endorsement from an unexpected place,

0:44.0

Trump's own former chief of staff John Kelly, who went on record with memories of Trump effectively praising Hitler.

0:50.0

Here's the problem for Harris.

0:52.0

Trump's inner circle has been working overtime in the past several months to parry those blows

0:56.2

and ensure they don't stick.

0:58.0

The ex-president has gone on a non-traditional media tour more reminiscent of a UFC fighter

1:02.1

or a fitness instructor than a presidential

1:04.0

candidate. He showed up at McDonald's to serve French fries and played golf on

1:07.9

YouTube over jokes. In short, the campaign has tried to soften Trump's image, from that of divisive controversial

1:14.2

politician to amusing entertainer you want to shoot the shit with over a cold beer.

1:19.2

To the surprise of seemingly everyone in the beltway, it seems to be working, at least with a segment of the country.

1:25.0

When you're able to communicate the relatability,

1:28.0

then voters feel even more strongly that the policies that you're pushing for are being done

1:34.8

because you want to help them. One long-time Trump ally has called the strategy the

1:38.9

smartest thing the campaign has done this election and argue that the biggest untold story this cycle

1:44.3

is how Trump's inner circle has eroded the social stigma around him. Now will that be

1:49.6

enough to catapult Trump to another four years in office? Well, we'll find out in 11 days.

1:54.7

But to understand Trump's own thinking about these questions,

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