The Times, again citing unknown campaign insiders, goes on to report that Trump has little interest in the nuts and bolts of his reelection effort; virtually never talks about what he would accomplish should he win a second term; questions why he isn’t doing more rallies (but also complains about not wanting to travel too much); and has not assigned a chief political strategist.

Biden, at least, holds his attention—and for good reason. Recent public polling out of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which swung Trump’s way by less than 1% in 2016, suggests the president is in danger of losing the Rust Belt next year. (Michigan in particular may cause even more angst, given the surplus of polling that shows Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris beating Trump. Biden, naturally, has the largest margin, 53–41.) In Texas, a longtime Republican stronghold that he won by 9 points, a Quinnipiac poll finds that Trump would lose to Biden by 44–48, a 13-point swing in the Scranton Man’s direction.

Critically, that same Quinnipiac poll shows Trump winning Texas if he faces off against any other Democrats, including Sanders, Warren, and Buttigieg. It’s still early days, of course, and all polls must be taken with a grain of salt. But it is understandable why Trump spends his nights on the phone discussing Biden, and why aides use him as a smelling salt when the president starts nodding off in meetings.

It doesn’t appear to have inspired Trump to care about how to beat Biden, however, which involves boring stuff like voter turnout, digital messaging, and building a political platform that makes the case for four more years. Indeed, Trump’s 2016 playbook won’t necessarily age well considering his failure to make good on major campaign promises, and his newfound status as an incumbent—the very “establishment” creature he promised to unseat. But rather than revamp things, Trump has defaulted to his typical attack mode: coming up with nicknames like “swampman,” workshopping criminal-reform pushes to hit Biden for his support of the 1994 crime bill, and monologuing about Biden’s lack of energy, calling his fellow septuagenarian “feeble.” (“I think he’s the weakest mentally and I think Joe is weak mentally,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.) In some ways, this is the best strategy for the president, said former advisor Jason Miller. “President Trump is always strongest when he has a direct foil,” he told the Times. “I can’t imagine him not taking advantage of the opportunity to jab at Biden.” In other ways, however, it might leave the Trump Train neglected.

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