Trump's Disciplined Campaign Should Worry Biden and the Democrats

Former President Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses by a historic margin. He won decisively in New Hampshire, a state where he was supposed to fare poorly among a more moderate Republican electorate. And things are looking bright for him in South Carolina.

Trump’s success is partially a function of the reality that he’s running as a de facto incumbent; despite his 2020 loss, his base still thinks he’s got the juice. But there are also signs that he’s running a significantly smoother campaign operation than in 2016 or 2020. That improved machinery underscores how the 2024 general election — which Trump is all but certain to run in, barring a legal prohibition — could play out differently than four years ago and make President Joe Biden’s election bid harder than before.

Axios recently published a report explaining all the ways that Trump’s campaign looks more organized than his previous presidential campaigns and White House operation. In Iowa and New Hampshire, his campaign started setting up a strong, organized ground game a year in advance. Unlike years past, campaign operatives have not been constantly leaking embarrassing, backstabbing details to the press. They have developed an organized system for state politicians seeking Trump’s endorsement. He’s reached out to state party leaders and influenced the party’s delegate allocation rules to his advantage. He has wined and dined Republican lawmakers to secure a huge number of early endorsements and angled for those endorsements to come at strategic times. . . . .