Trump Campaign Furious At GOP Senate Campaign Over Its 'Don’t Defend Trump' Memo

Last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) sent a detailed 57-page memo to GOP campaigns that implored them to “Don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China.” On Monday, Politico reported that Trump's political adviser Justin Clark told NRSC executive director Kevin McLaughlin that any Republican following the advice of that memo should not expect the active support of the president.

Clark said in a statement that Republican candidates “who want to win will be running with the president. Candidates will listen to the bad advice in this memo at their own peril. President Trump enjoys unprecedented support among Republican voters and everyone on the ballot in November will want to tap into that enthusiasm. The president’s campaign, the RNC, and the NRSC are firmly on the same page here.”

Another line that infuriated Trump campaign officials was one that encouraged candidates to say: “I wish that everyone acted earlier - that includes our elected officials, the World Health Organization, and the CDC.”

This advice by the NRSC is not borne out of antipathy for the president or a desire to create political fights, but of a response to widespread polling revealing that the president has become vulnerable on this issue. Polling in swing states indicates that voters trust their governors far more than the president to handle the pandemic. A new poll in Ohio, a state Trump won by over 8 percentage points in 2016, shows him slightly trailing Joe Biden as Republican Governor Mike DeWine is rated over 30 percent more favorably than Trump by Ohio voters.

This split in Trump’s approval rating with that of governors of all partisan stripes reveals the logic at the heart of the NRSC memo. Standing with Trump on the federal government’s bungled coronavirus response is politically risky for any Senator, and Republicans fighting for reelection in November will have to walk a tightrope between acknowledging the widespread federal failure and not alienating a president unafraid to attack Republican officials he deems to be insufficiently loyal.

Brett O’Donnell, a veteran GOP strategist whose political consulting firm authored the 57-page memo, said in a statement that “I never advise candidates not to defend the president, and the media shouldn’t take one line out of context. I have spent the last four years of my life being an advocate for the president and advising people to do the same.”

Both Trump and Biden are wrestling with how to center China in their campaign attacks, given how widespread polling reveals a growing anti-China appetite amongst the American electorate. However, it is clear from both available polling and the NRSC memo that Trump’s response is also a political liability. As we get closer to the November elections, there is likely to be increased tension between Republicans up for reelection and the White House so long as Trump’s approval numbers continue to dip as the coronavirus crisis worsens.