Still stinging from his first defeat as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump appears to be rolling into New Hampshire with a new mantra: There is no such thing as too much campaigning.
Trump was originally scheduled to hold two campaign events in the Granite State on Thursday. But by Wednesday night, the campaign distributed a revised schedule that squeezed in additional stops that include an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a meeting with local business owners and an event with the Manchester Police Department.
The bulked up schedule follows Trump’s second-place finish behind Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
Trump’s unconventional campaign style was particularly noticeable in Iowa — a state where retail politics is hugely critical — and next to Cruz, who crisscrossed the state relentlessly to ensure he had visited all 99 counties. In contrast, Trump opted for large rallies over intimate settings and extended personal interactions with voters, jetting in and out on his private jet and rarely spending the night in the state.
While the last-minute ramping up of the campaign schedule in New Hampshire doesn’t necessarily mean Trump is making substantive changes to the way he is running his campaign, it does at least suggest that he looking to step up his exposure here just days away from the Tuesday contest.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks didn’t comment on Thursday’s schedule.
Recent polls have shown Trump with a significant lead over his competitors in the state, but his loss in Iowa and Marco Rubio’s stronger-than-expected finish there could shift the dynamics.
For all of his usual bombast and confidence, Trump has shown moments of introspection post-Iowa, both about himself and his campaign operations. The candidate who has openly boasted about running a non-traditional campaign admitted Tuesday that he “didn’t have much of a ground game” in Iowa, and that he is attempting to be more “understated and statesman-like.”
But by Wednesday, Trump accused Cruz of stealing the caucuses and called for either a new vote or the results to be nullified.
