Interviewing Donald Trump: A last-minute blitz and new closing message

When I near Donald Trump aft our interview, I was somewhat startled to walk 8 men successful afloat riot gear, marching toward his Trump Tower office.

It was a stark reminder of the 2 assassination attempts. Trump was astir to alert to Pennsylvania, and these guys were locked and loaded.

I’d been told that helium would usage the aged Reagan enactment that Saturday night: Are you amended disconnected present than you were 4 years ago?

How long, I wondered, earlier helium goes disconnected script?

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I conscionable sat down with erstwhile President Donald Trump for our 2nd interrogation successful the past fewer months. (Fox News)

Trump had told maine helium was going to Arnold Palmer’s hometown successful the Keystone State.

What I didn’t cognize was that helium would picture the precocious golfer arsenic "all man" and marvel astatine the expected size of his antheral endowment. He besides utilized the S-word to picture Kamala Harris. So overmuch for sticking to the script.

Critics, including the vice president, person been describing Trump arsenic exhausted, based connected 1 second-hand quote, but helium didn’t look bushed to maine astatine all. If helium was speaking successful a softer voice, that’s due to the fact that we were practically genu to genu successful the tower’s room room.

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This was my 2nd sitdown with the erstwhile president successful a fewer months, and I pushed him connected a wide scope of topics. How could helium telephone Jan. 6 a "day of love" erstwhile constabulary were being attacked? Why, contempt the "60 Minutes" editing fiasco connected the Kamala interview, would you effort to yank CBS’s license? How tin you telephone your governmental opponents "the force within"? Would you prosecute successful retribution? Will you admit the falsehood of "they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats?"

He dug in, adjacent connected that past one. 

Whether you similar oregon dislike Trump, "'Morning Joe' producers and different producers that ticker america and each the producers that ticker america – this is not conscionable rhetoric," Steve Bannon said. "You cannot person a law republic and let what these deep-staters person done to the country."

Former President Trump appears to beryllium zeroing successful connected his last connection to voters with Election Day conscionable implicit 2 weeks away. (Pool)

Kash Patel says "we volition spell retired and find the conspirators, not conscionable successful authorities but successful the media… We’re going to travel aft you, whether it’s transgression oregon civilly," but lone based connected the facts and the law.

Now here’s the consciousness I’ve gotten from my reporting.

With conscionable implicit 2 weeks to go, Trump has settled connected his closing message. It’s migration and the economy. He whitethorn digress by cooking fries astatine McDonald’s, arsenic a mode of doubting Kamala’s teenage stint there, helium whitethorn usage much profanity, but the last entreaty is based connected those 2 issues, period.

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The Trump campy believes that 1 advertisement that has moved the numbers is Harris’ past clasp of payer backing for national inmates to get gender-reassignment surgery. That seemed questionable adjacent to Charlamagne Tha God successful their interview. Harris says she simply followed the instrumentality successful the aforesaid mode Trump did.

The erstwhile president is trying to rebrand his effort by promising a New Golden Age. That seems a wide effect to Harris touting a New Way Forward. Both are claiming the mantle of the "change" campaigner with astir voters seeing the state arsenic connected the incorrect track–the incumbent vs. the erstwhile incumbent.

Trump did get disconnected a comic enactment with maine astir Kamala moving to the center. "She’s go MAGA. I’ll nonstop her a hat."

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Donald Trump worked arsenic a fry navigator connected Sunday day astatine a Pennsylvania McDonald's, claiming helium has present worked astatine the fast-food concatenation longer than Vice President Kamala Harris. (Brooke Singman/Fox News Digital)

But Trump and his strategists are mystified by what they spot arsenic the vice president’s deficiency of a closing connection and nonaccomplishment to triumph implicit arsenic galore Black supporters arsenic Joe Biden had. There’s an accent connected termination rights, of course, and large warnings astir Trump being unstable and unhinged. But is determination thing that ties it each together?

Trump has a longtime wont of asking everyone astir him, including constitution artists, what they think, arsenic a benignant of absorption group. "Are you confident?" he’s been asking lately. "Are you confident?"

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The reply he’s been hearing: Yes, but you’ll triumph narrowly.