A little over two weeks ago, Donald Trump's presidential campaign had visions of an expansive national strategy that would result in a landslide victory in November.
Now, as they struggle to blunt a surging Kamala Harris, who swiftly replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate last month, campaign advisers are recalibrating to protect states once thought of as safe and narrowing ambitions for the electoral map.
While top Trump advisers once saw a chance for an electoral blowout — with Democratic-leaning states like Minnesota and Virginia in play — the elevation of Harris has prompted Republicans to refocus on a narrower path to victory that runs through traditional battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
"The race has changed," Corey Lewandowski, a longtime adviser to the former president, told Reuters, though he said the race still favours Trump.
Reuters interviewed 12 campaign staff, advisers and donors who described a campaign that is grasping for a fresh strategy.
"It's clear to everyone she could win," said one senior Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal deliberations.
Ammar Moussa, a Harris campaign spokesman, said Trump and his running mate JD Vance were taking the country backwards, while Harris was taking the country forwards.
The Trump sources Reuters spoke to pointed to three issues: delays in rolling out attack ads against Harris, which are seen as key for pointing out an opponent's perceived weaknesses; doubts among some Republican leaders and donors over the selection of Vance as running mate; and concerns over Trump himself as he tramples over his advisers' efforts to define Harris based on her policy positions.
One source said the anti-Harris ads had been slow to air in part because the material had to be run by focus groups first. The campaign also wanted to see who Harris would pick as her running mate.
Harris this week announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a plain-speaking midwesterner, as her vice-presidential candidate.
In the lead-up to Biden's exit, the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc super PAC readied a TV ad accusing Harris of covering up Biden's infirmity. It began airing in four swing states on July 21, the day Biden announced that he was ending his reelection campaign.
At the same time, the campaign found itself on the defensive over Vance.
Vance has faced a wave of negative press over past comments referring to some Democrats, including Harris, as "a bunch of childless cat ladies", an insult seen as misogynistic and dismissive of people without children.
And then there is Trump's resort to name-calling instead of focusing on Harris' policy positions. Trump has cycled furiously through a series of personal insults against Harris. Those efforts have generated negative headlines — about Trump, rather than Harris.
At an event for the National Association of Black Journalists last week, Trump questioned whether Harris — whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica — was actually Black.
That left donors and aides baffled and alarmed, according to a Republican donor, an operative at a pro-Trump super PAC spending group, and a Trump-supporting union leader.
Three days later, Trump attacked Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, at a rally, possibly alienating a popular figure in a battleground state where Trump could need help mobilising voters to the polls.
Trump has also been firing off multiple, convoluted missives on his Truth Social app, including one on Tuesday in which he mused about Biden returning to the top of the ticket.
And Trump is getting outspent on campaign ads in battleground states, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks ad spending.
Harris and affiliated committees have outspent Trump and his allies US$112 million to US$70.1 million on ads since July 22, according to AdImpact data, although Trump has matched Harris' outlays in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial state for each side.
In terms of future reservations of TV air time, Harris and her allies are swamping Trump US$172.4 million to US$71.8 million as of this week, the firm said.
Perhaps most telling was the Trump campaign's significant new ad buy in North Carolina, which had looked likely to remain Republican until Harris' ascension energised Black and young voters.
The writers are from Reuters