Worried and scared….Donald Trump give’s up his ‘seat of pants’ for old time campaign help?….

The return of Trump originals and the outreach to former foes comes at a critical juncture for the president, who has fallen behind Biden in numerous matchup polls, been absent from the campaign trail for nearly three months because of nationwide stay-at-home orders and was met with resistance from some Republican officials who are nervous about reopening the country too quickly as the coronavirus death count climbs.

Trump’s support with core constituencies remains solid and his fundraising continues to break records — the Trump campaign and RNC marked their largest online fundraising day ever on Sunday with a combined $14 million haul for the president’s 74th birthday. But his appeal among senior voters — a demographic he carried by 7 percentage points in 2016 — and white working-class women has eroded, leading to polling deficits in swing states that are critical to his reelection. A Michigan poll released Tuesday from EPIC-MRA found Biden leading Trump among likely voters 55 percent to 39 percent.

The campaign has also struggled to zero in on a message that appeals to voters in the middle of the public health crisis and passionate protests over police brutality. The demonstrations and nationwide conversation about systemic racism have led Kushner and Trump to seek advice from Scott and other prominent black conservatives — including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is urging the president to reconsider his opposition to NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. But there’s little evidence to suggest those conversations have translated into a polling boost for Trump among black Americans, 85 percent of whom said the U.S. is on the wrong track in a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll this month.

Trump campaign officials who once said the president could breeze through the general election on an anti-socialism message have struggled to pin the label to Biden, a practicing Catholic who has opposed programs like “Medicare for All, defended wealthy Americans as “not necessarily bad” and said last week he does not support activist calls to “defund the police.”

In the months since Biden effectively secured the Democratic nomination, the campaign has tried to modify its message — arguing that only Trump can deliver a vibrant economic recovery in the post-coronavirus era or that he’s the law-and-order leader America needs right now — and define Biden without repelling certain voters.

Campaign officials expect to spend the next few weeks fine-tuning their strategy and continuing to solicit feedback from outside actors so the president is ready to “go into battle” by August, according to the senior White House official….

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image….businessinsider.com