This combination of photos taken on March 6, 2024, shows former U.S. President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 27, 2024, and U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2024. | AFP (ARCHIVE PHOTOS)

Joe Biden’s withdrawal will upend the already storied race for the White House, but it will also unsettle Donald Trump, forcing him to recalibrate a campaign that was almost entirely focused on his former opponent.

For months, Trump and his allies have played on concerns that the 81-year-old Biden may no longer be fit for office, enthusiastically sharing video clips of his every stutter, rhetorical gaffe and red-carpet faux pas.

He was a frequent target of ridicule and scorn from Republicans at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump’s recently announced running mate J.D. Vance called him “Fake Scranton Joe.”

READ MORE:

Biden drops out of 2024 race, endorses VP Harris

Biden announces he is withdrawing from re-election campaign

Biden’s departure: What happens next?

But now that the Democrat is out of the race, Trump is forced to make a strategic shift. The message must now be adapted to a race without an incumbent president and with an opponent yet to be confirmed. Biden did endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday when he withdrew from the race.

“Biden withdrawing is bad news for Trump,” Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center, told AFP.

“Biden has the lowest job approval of any first-term president at this stage of his presidency in polling history, and he is also irreparably burdened by his age. Trump is far better off running against him than against any other conceivable opponent.”

Trumpworld had played down the chances of Biden withdrawing, but behind the scenes, operatives are busy preparing for contingencies and preparing a brutal attack on the veteran Democrat’s heir apparent, Harris.

“There’s nothing fundamentally changing,” Jason Miller, one of Trump’s closest advisers, told AFP during the Republican convention. He said that any “radical liberal” Democratic opponent, Harris or otherwise, “shares responsibility for the failure to destroy our economy.”

Harris, a 59-year-old former senator from California, is no surefire winner and could face competition from several top Democrats in Congress and the nation’s 23 Democratic governors.

“I’m going to show up and I’m going to campaign — whether it’s him or somebody else,” Trump told a Virginia radio network before Biden’s announcement, citing polls showing him doing as well or better than other Democrats.

READ MORE:

‘I took a bullet for democracy,’ Trump says at first rally since shooting

Trump talks about assassination attempt: ‘He shouldn’t have been here’

Clash of cultures

Voters have been telling pollsters for months that they want younger political leaders. A nomination by, say, a relatively young governor from a swing state would pose a threat to Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term.

However, a Harris-led campaign backed by a moderate Midwestern running mate would pose the greatest threat, as it would increase the number of women who vote, which is a sign of weakness for Trump.

Harris would also give Democrats a chance to redefine the race as a clash of cultures between a former prosecutor and a convicted felon at their party convention in Chicago in August.

And Harris is ensuring that abortion rights — one of her top domestic priorities and an additional vulnerability for Trump and the Republicans — remains a key campaign issue.

Trump’s newfound seriousness about the vice president was evident when he gave her one of his famous nicknames, recently calling her “Laffin’ Kamala Harris” on social media.

‘Destruction and chaos’

It was the disastrous June presidential debate in Atlanta that prompted Biden’s withdrawal.

A new survey from Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling released Thursday shows that Harris — with the right running mate — could likely beat Trump and Vance in Pennsylvania and Michigan, two of the three “Blue Wall” states seen as crucial to electing a Democratic president.

However, the vice president has the disadvantage of already being a sitting president, meaning Trump can blame her for anything seen as a weakness on Biden’s part, including the border crisis, where Harris led the administration’s initial efforts.

Several rising Democratic stars have emerged as alternatives, including Governors Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom.

Newsom of California, who is prepared to confront leading Republicans, is unlikely to be intimidated by Trump’s attacks.

Whitmer was considered for Biden’s nomination in 2020 and has since led the Democratic surge in Michigan, while Pennsylvania’s Shapiro is another serious contender for the post of president of a key swing state.

Whoever the nominee is, Trump is likely to spend the rest of the campaign hammering Biden’s past defenses, accusing the nominees of covering up the president’s decline.

“The devastation and chaos caused by the Biden administration affects not just Crooked Joe, but the entire Democratic Party,” Trump’s team said in a recent edition of their daily circular.

“No one has been worse than Kamala Harris, who has lied repeatedly — presumably putting her own position above the safety of the American people.”

Read more…