Donald Trump may lose the US election if he continues to act as a “provocateur” and a “showman”, a senior Republican ally has warned, amid calls for the former president to “reset” his campaign.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who is friends with Trump, said he should focus on the “policy debate” with Kamala Harris, rather than launch personal attacks.
Trump’s campaign is now under pressure from some of its staunchest defenders to make major changes in the last 80 days of the campaign.
The 78-year-old has been criticised for calling Ms Harris “stupid” and claiming she had used her ethnicity as a campaigning tool.
On Sunday, Mr Graham joined Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for the Republican 2024 nomination, and former advisers in pushing for a focus on policy.
“President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins,” Mr Graham told NBC. “Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.”
He added: “I’m looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country, to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.”
The latest national polls show Ms Harris has pulled ahead of Trump by around two points, reversing the lead he held over Joe Biden before the president’s decision to drop out of the race on July 21.
A poll conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University released on Sunday found Ms Harris had shored up support among black voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
It comes after Trump suggested Ms Harris had previously downplayed her black heritage, and inflated it to win support when she became a politician. The vice-president’s father is Jamaican-American, while her mother is Indian.
