Donald Trump is still making mistakes in his 2024 campaign.
When the 78-year-old right-wing candidate stumbled over his speech at a recent Coachella, California rally, he made up a phrase and received backlash on social media.
"I will very quickly defleet," Trump bizarrely declared to the audience, as per OK! Magazine. "We are going to take inflation. And we are going to deflate it. We are going to deflate inflation. We are going to defeat inflation."
"There’s that stable genius again," one user wrote beneath the peculiar video on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"He is the best deflator. My hopes and dreams have been totally deflated at the mere thought of him being president again," a second person said.
"Deflation? We are doomed if Trump returns to the White House," a third individual added.
The Republican candidate's speech remained erratic as he proceeded. "But they have no water artificially. They reroute it because they want to save— There's a fish— Delta smelt. By the way, the Delta smelt is doing extremely badly.. they think they have a fish and their way of saving the fish is not to give it water," he muttered.
"Wtf is delta smelt and how is this related to anything?" One online user enquired about Trump's statements.
"Delta smelt is nothing, but Trump supporters now care about it more than anything," a different individual observed.
Trump recently delineated the policies he intends to implement if he regains the presidency as if his nonsensical remarks were not sufficiently objectionable, GLOBE Magazine reported.
"We are now known, all throughout the world, as OCCUPIED AMERICA...But to everyone here in Colorado and all across our nation, I make you this vow: November 5th, 2024 will be LIBERATION DAY in America. I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered—and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the h--- OUT OF OUR COUNTRY," wrote in a recent update to Truth Social.
"No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can EVER be allowed to become POTUS!" The individual from New York was included. Trump also stated that he wished to impose an "automatic ten years in jail with no possibility of parole" on returning to the United States. Additionally, he suggested the death penalty for "any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer."
"We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our Country. We will defend our territory. We will not be conquered. We will reclaim our sovereignty—and Colorado will vote for Trump as a protest and signal to the world that we are not going to take it anymore. I will liberate Colorado. I will give you back your freedom and your life!" he observed.
Meanwhile, according to many sources familiar with the matter, the software used by the Trump campaign to track canvassers requires fast internet access to function correctly. Thus, the campaign has limited insight into whether its ground game operation is reaching target voters in battleground states.
This election cycle, Trump's campaign aims its messages at so-called low-propensity Trump voters, who tend to live in rural regions. The hope is that reaching out to those who don't usually vote but would support Trump if given the chance could swing the race's outcome, The Guardian reported.
However, canvassers in regions with slow internet have to utilize an offline version of Campaign Sidekick, the management program used by the Trump campaign and America Pac, which is now performing a large chunk of Trump's ground game and is financed by Elon Musk.
Canvassers with internet speeds below 40 Mbps, which is enough to stream 4K video, are reportedly forced to use " offline workbooks" by the Campaign Sidekick app. These workbooks lack a geo-tracking feature and don't always upload once a route is over.
If canvassers are "speed-running" routes, physically throwing campaign leaflets at doors as they drive past, the Trump campaign and America Pac will have no way of knowing whether they are knocking on doors.
The Trump campaign's emphasis on reaching low-propensity voters has increased the volume of offline workbooks, making it impossible for America Pac to audit each directly. Despite this, the organization has sent teams of auditors to trail canvassers to discourage cheating.
According to the sources, there have been instances where canvassers' data has failed to upload even after they have completed a route offline. Canvassers waste time redoing their work and risk alienating voters if they make the same mistake twice because the door pays them.
According to the sources, the Trump team has received Sidekick complaints for a while now. Using money for their activities, at least two other super Pacs undertaking ground game labor for the Trump campaign in battleground states have ceased doing so.
In a broader sense, users have griped about the app failing at busy times or technical issues, such as the malfunctioning Google Maps preview that canvassers use to plan their routes.
In response to earlier criticism, Campaign Sidekick has stated that it has always been honest with clients about the limitations of offline workbooks and that they should keep an eye out for signs of fraud, such as canvassers claiming to have spoken to voters at more than 25% of the doors they visited.
An executive from September Group LLC, a prominent canvassing vendor that America Pac hired to knock on doors in Arizona and Nevada until last month, expressed satisfaction with Sidekick and the decision to forego offline workbooks due to their shortcomings.
According to a statement sent by Trump's co-campaign chairman, Chris LaCivita, the campaign's canvassing applications are functioning correctly, and the company has made an unprecedented investment in technology this election cycle to enhance its operations. We will identify and punish the vendor responsible for this hit job as soon as we win this campaign.
LaCivita failed to clarify why they are suspicious of a vendor, considering that most complaints originated from their ground game partners. The statement also left out the fact that the campaign has known about the problems for a while.
Other groups have also voiced their disapproval of Campaign Sidekick. Charlie Kirk's right-wing group, Turning Point Action, informed the Trump campaign that they would utilize their app in Arizona, Wisconsin, and some sections of Michigan due to the difficulties they encountered.
A common theme in Turning Point's criticisms is the insistence on doing everything by hand. They said that if a canvasser could only do half of a route, the remaining doors couldn't be instantly reassigned to someone else, so those voters would just stay unreached.
It is unclear why the Trump team has continued to use the program, aside from a need for consistency.
During March, the Trump campaign took over the RNC and instructed America Pac to use the app. This was partly because the Trump team was already using it, and another reason was the belief that all the data would be easier to analyse if it was all in one place, according to a Trump official.
However, there have also been political factors to consider. One source added that the Trump campaign opted not to use i360 Walk and its owners, the Koch brothers, because of the hostility between the two parties due to their history of opposing Trump.
Advantage Inc.'s software was also not used by the Trump campaign due to their perception of its inferiority and the fact that Florida governor Ron DeSantis had used it for his voter turnout operation in his 2024 Republican primary challenge to Trump.
And earlier in this election season, the RNC rejected the Numinar platform, which America First Works—another Trump-allied Pac performing ground-game work—had proposed as a replacement for Campaign Sidekick. The reasons behind this rejection are still unknown.
