Trump moves from golf course to campaign trail as Biden shows signs of gaining ground

After a long break from campaigning, Donald Trump is heading to Wisconsin and Michigan next week. His Midwest trip comes as a new poll shows the race tightening in those key swing states.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey released March 26 had President Joe Biden gaining ground in six battleground states, with the president leading in Wisconsin for the first time in six surveys and tied with Trump in Michigan. Trump led in both states in a February survey by the same pollster.

Trump’s Green Bay rally and Grand Rapids speech on April 2 will be his first traditional campaign events in more than two weeks, since an Ohio rally on March 16. (Trump more recently held press conferences after a court appearance and a slain New York City police officer’s wake.)

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Trump’s lack of campaigning in recent weeks contrasts sharply with Biden. The president recently blitzed battleground states with a string of rallies and other campaign events.

Biden has taken the opportunity to depict Trump as lacking vigor, reversing an attack Trump and his supporters have made against the president.

Biden hits eight states in 18 days

Biden hit the road after his State of the Union speech on March 7, holding campaign events in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina and New Hampshire over 18 days.

“Folks, we’re seeing an incredible enthusiasm all over the country,” Biden said during a fundraiser at a Raleigh, N.C. hotel on Tuesday, before recounting all the states he visited recently.

In a video posted on X Thursday, Biden’s campaign highlighted his robust schedule and contrasted it with footage of Trump on the golf course.

Trump bragged on Truth Social on March 24 that he was receiving awards that night for winning two championships at one of his golf courses.

“I’ll tell you this: There’s a difference between the two candidates in this election,” Biden wrote above the video, after earlier trolling Trump over his golf championship boast.

“Congratulations, Donald. Quite the accomplishment,” Biden said in responding to Trump’s Truth Social golf post.

Trump’s courtroom campaign

Trump’s legal and financial troubles may have contributed to his campaign hiatus. He was in a Manhattan courtroom on March 25 for a hearing in his criminal case alleging business fraud stemming from hush money payments to an adult film actress. That trial will start on April 15.

Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that had long supported Democrats for president, on his way to the White House in 2016, but Biden won them back in 2020. They could be decisive in 2024.

Trump’s new campaign swing comes as his team has made minimal investments in field operations in key swing states thus far. Campaign finance reports show Trump lagging behind Biden in fundraising.

“There are more than 100 polls showing President Trump crushing Joe Biden, including recent polling that has him leading in every key battleground state and winning independents by double digits,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told USA Today.

President Joe Biden held a informal private meeting the Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, team co-owner and governor Wes Edens and a handful of players and staff members while he was in town March 13 to speak at the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee. Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Biden fundraiser in New York City with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton raised more than $26 million Thursday, according to the campaign. Trump is holding a big fundraiser in Palm Beach next week with GOP megadonors.

Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra recently told the Associated Press that the Republican National Committee has done little in his state to gear up for 2024, calling it a “skeleton” operation right now.

Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said this week in a statement that “we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President Trump to victory on November 5.”

While the Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll shows Biden making gains in Michigan and Wisconsin, the Real Clear Politics average of recent surveys shows Trump ahead in both states and other battlegrounds.

Trump is leading in Michigan and Wisconsin in recent Emerson College polls, but within the margin of error, “indicating that the election is a toss-up at this stage,” said Emerson pollster Spencer Kimball.

USA TODAY reporter David Jackson contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump moves from golf course to campaign trail as Biden shows signs of gaining ground