President Trump is packing his schedule with rallies and other events as the Senate prepares for his impeachment trial — and allies say it’s a calculated blitz akin to the final days of his 2016 campaign.
Trump’s busy roster allows him to dominate the national news cycle, aides tell The Post, diverting attention from the looming impeachment trial and even from Democrats who want his job.
“In a lot of ways this reminds me of the final stretch of the 2016 campaign when he did six or seven events in a day and [Hillary Clinton] did maybe one,” said Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign spokesman and transition official.
“He’s superhuman in this regard,” an effusive Miller said. “I couldn’t do it. I’m 30 years younger, and I could barely keep up with him. He just has a different clock than any mere mortal.”
Early Tuesday, reporters and aides went home at 2:30 a.m. when Trump returned to the White House from the college football championship game in Louisiana — where he stayed an extra hour and a half among a supportive crowd that included actor Vince Vaughn.
That same crew was in for another long night Tuesday, with Trump scheduled to return from a Wisconsin campaign rally at midnight.
And they won’t catch up on sleep Wednesday, when Trump signs a “phase one” China trade deal in the morning.
Trump’s frenzied pace serves in part as counter-programming. His Tuesday rally directly competed with the televised seventh Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.
“The president’s strategy is brilliant,” said Brad Rateike, a former Trump campaign aide who also worked in the White House.
“He won in 2016 because he had a message which resonated with Americans who had long been forgotten, and he had the energy to speak to them, 15,000 at a time, multiple times a day.”
Andy Surabian, director of Trump’s 2016 campaign war room and a former White House adviser, said he expects the already-rapid tempo to escalate even more ahead of the November election.
“There’s no political figure in the world today with his energy and stamina on the campaign trail and just like it was a big reason he defeated Hillary in 2016, it will be one of the primary reasons he defeats whichever socialist wins the Democrat nomination in November of 2020,” he said.
Whether by chance or design, public events give Trump the opportunity to define the news cycle.
His Wednesday trade event coincides with a House vote to transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate. And a visit next Tuesday to Davos, Switzerland, will happen on what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said will be the first day of his impeachment trial.
The frenetic schedule by Trump, 73, has his entourage guzzling coffee.
“The president has boundless energy,” said one weary White House official.
“President Trump never stops working, so his busy schedule should come as no surprise to anyone,” said White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.
“As a candidate, he told people he would ‘never stop working for them,’ and he has fulfilled that promise since day one.”