David Jackson

USA TODAY

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. — Donald Trump now seems to be casting himself as the underdog, poised to come back in the presidential race the way some of his struggling companies once did in the business world.

"America needs a turnaround and needs a turnaround fast," Trump told backers Tuesday in a hockey arena at the Prescott Valley Event Center. "America needs a comeback."

In addition to pitching the idea of a national revival, Trump has begun describing himself as an odds-defying underdog in the days since a New York Times story suggested he may not have paid federal taxes for nearly two decades, as polls show him sliding further behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A Monmouth University Poll released Monday, for example, gave Clinton a 10-point lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, a state Trump probably has to carry if he is to rack up the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Arizona, a traditional GOP state where Trump campaigned Tuesday, is also likely a must-have for the Republican nominee.

During a Monday appearances in Colorado — another key battleground state — Trump described the country as "in need of a major comeback," adding that he knows the feeling and that he is the one who can turn things around.

"When the pressure is on, when the odds are stacked against me, when people say it can't be done, that's when we have to get started," the New York businessman told a supportive crowd late Monday in Loveland, Colo.

Trump has also begun stressing his business background since The New York Times reported over the weekend that, based on a tax document it obtained, Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income — a deduction so large it would have allowed him to legally avoid paying federal income taxes for 18 years.

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The Republican nominee and his aides did not dispute the specifics of the story but have instead focused on how he rescued struggling businesses during the 1990s.

"I know how to make a comeback," Trump said late Monday in Loveland, Colo. "And that's what it is, again, bigger, better, stronger company by far than ever before. That's the thinking we need for our country."

Later, he added: "I knew in my heart that when the chips were down is when I perform the best."

There is some irony to Trump's approach in that Bill Clinton adopted the "Comeback Kid" moniker when he faced a rough patch during his 1992 presidential campaign.

Whether the argument will allow Trump to rally by Election Day next month remains to be seen.

Liz Mair, a "Never Trump" Republican strategist who is advising a GOP group backing Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, said Trump already has to deal with the changing demographics of the country and that his many controversial statements in recent months have undercut his attempts to overtake Hillary Clinton.

"The way Trump has positioned himself throughout this campaign has, I think, insured he has a built-in problem with too many voters to be capable of beating her," Mair said.

Little more than a month before Election Day — and with early voting already under way in some states — there is little room for error, said Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

"For a candidate as undisciplined and as easily distracted as Trump, that's a challenge," he said.