Why Trump’s 'hollow' campaign lacks 2016’s 'festive atmosphere': analysis

19 June 2024

Despite the fact that he is facing four criminal indictments and is scheduled to be sentenced on 34 criminal counts on Thursday, July 11, Donald Trump remains the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee. Much of the Republican Party has been rallying around Trump's campaign, and many prominent Republicans who were hoping he wouldn't be the nominee — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — have endorsed him.

Trump's hardcore MAGA voters are still enthusiastically attending his rallies. But The Atlantic's David A. Graham, in an article published on June 19, argues that Trump's "hollow" 2024 campaign lacks the "festive atmosphere" of his 2016 rallies.

"Donald Trump's 2016 campaign was, among other things, one of the most impressive displays of branding on a large scale, in a short time, ever," Graham recalls. "There were hats. There were flags. And above all, there were slogans. 'Make America Great Again.' 'Build the wall.' 'Lock her up.' And later, 'Drain the swamp,' which Trump conceded on the stump that he'd initially hated. No matter: Crowds loved it, which was good enough for Trump to decide that he did, too."

Graham continues, "One peculiarity of Trump's 2024 campaign is the absence of any similar mantra. At some recent rallies, neither Trump nor the audience has even uttered 'Build the wall,' once a standard. Crowds are reverting instead to generic 'U-S-A' chants or, as at a recent Phoenix rally, 'B******t, b******t, b******t!,' which has a winning simplicity but doesn't have the specificity and originality of its predecessors."

The slogans of 2016, Graham observes, have been replaced by an emphasis on "grievances."

"It doesn't quite create the festive atmosphere of eight years ago, when many attendees were clearly having a great time," Graham explains. "Where the new, more prosaic feeling lacks the uplift of the past, though, it has still managed to generate enough enthusiasm that Trump leads in many polls and could return to the White House in a few months. Even Trump seems to acknowledge the hollowness of his latest run."

Trump's "catchy slogans" of 2016, Graham stresses, "were a symbol of" his "willingness to talk about things that other candidates, including other Republicans, shied away from."

"Grievance is not a new note at Trump rallies, but four and eight years ago, he used to talk about other people's grievances and promise to redress them," Graham explains. "Now, the grievances are largely his own, stemming from the legal cases against him and his loss in the 2020 election, which is so painful that he still won't recognize it…. In a strange sense, Trump's campaign resembles the one that his rival Hillary Clinton ran in 2016."

Read David A. Graham's full article for The Atlantic at this link (subscription required).

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