Faced with growing speculation about Joe Biden’s health, Donald Trump is, in a very unusual way, playing the restraint card.
As his Democratic rival is experiencing arguably the worst week of his political career, the Republican candidate has resisted the temptation to publicly criticize him.
No diatribe, no new killer nickname: Donald Trump, not exactly known for being tongue-tied, has barely commented on the storm that the Democratic president is facing over his candidacy.
He only boasted, in a few posts on his network, Truth Social, of having “annihilated” his rival during their televised duel on June 27.
Donald Trump’s near silence is all the more surprising given that the Republican is usually the first to attack the 81-year-old president on his health.
In one of his favorite campaign rally numbers, the showman with the famous red cap mocks the age of his rival. He plays a haggard, helpless Joe Biden, unable to get off stage, to the great delight of his fans.
And he says: “He is almost incapable of reading, of standing up!”
His camp has been repeating for years that the American president is senile, with tendentious fabrications to support his claim.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday night, Donald Trump soberly criticized Mr. Biden’s performance in the debate, avoiding mentioning any serious illness or attacking his mental health.
He added that he believed Mr Biden would stay in the race.
“It was a strange debate, because the first couple of minutes, the answers he was giving didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said. The Republican said he didn’t look at Mr. Biden during the debate, “except when he got a little sidetracked.”
Asked if he thought Mr Biden should step down, Mr Trump said: “Well, we’ve prepared for him, but I don’t think it matters.”
“Deliberate” silence
So how can we explain this change in posture?
Republican strategist Rob Burgess says the Republican candidate’s near-silence is absolutely “deliberate.”
There are few opportunities for Donald Trump, who was convicted in criminal court in New York at the end of May, to divert attention from his legal troubles. Or from his still very unpopular positions on abortion.
“Why put yourself in the middle of a media whirlwind when you don’t have to?” Rob Burgess, a member of Donald Trump’s campaign team in 2016 and 2020, told AFP.
Is it also possible that Donald Trump, 78, is holding back, for fear of being pitted against a candidate younger than Joe Biden in November?
This is what David Axelrod, former strategist for Barack Obama, insinuated.
“Trump doesn’t talk much about Biden’s bad debate. His campaign doesn’t run ads about it,” he said. “Why do you think the restraint?” he wrote, with hints, on X.
See you in Milwaukee
In Florida on Tuesday, for one of his first campaign rallies since the debate, will Donald Trump resist the temptation to imitate a struggling American president?
The Republican is expected to detail “how Joe Biden’s failed presidency has had catastrophic consequences for Floridians and Americans,” his entourage said.
The event is scheduled for the outskirts of Miami, starting at 7 p.m.
On stage, the Republican is expected to be joined by Marco Rubio, an influential senator from Florida, who is on the list of three or four names that Donald Trump is considering as his running mate.
Profiles of Senator JD Vance and Governor Doug Burgum are also circulating, and the Trump camp was expected to make its choice official in the coming days.
But, here again, the Republicans preferred to leave the spotlight on the trench warfare that the Democrats are engaged in, four months before the presidential election.
The name of Donald Trump’s running mate will be revealed next week at the latest, when the Republican Party convention begins in Milwaukee. This grand gathering will be an opportunity for Republicans to formally crown Donald Trump as the party’s nominee. And to capture, once again, a little spotlight.