Allies urge Trump to focus on inflation, immigration and crime as team tempers debate expectations

CNN —

Staring down a potentially race-defining debate and an opponent that has spent far more time preparing, Donald Trump’s team is now trying to steer the former president’s focus to kitchen table issues instead of the grievances that have occupied his mind for the past four years.

Advisers and allies of Trump have privately encouraged him to focus intensely on the economy, crime and inflation during Thursday’s debate, citing poll numbers that reflect he has the upper hand on these issues, sources familiar with the conversations tell CNN.

“These are the issues that are people are hurting from and that need to be addressed,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said during a call Tuesday with reporters, citing recent record inflation, crime committed by undocumented migrants and President Joe Biden’s handling of the US-Mexico border.

Some of these allies have also urged Trump to paint the international landscape under Biden as chaotic and focus on both the two-year war in Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas as examples.

“This isn’t theoretical anymore,” Trump ally Rep. Mike Waltz told “CNN News Central,” when asked what he hopes to hear from the former president during the debate. “This is what life was like under the Trump administration—economically with inflation, with the border with security, in terms of crime and the world … Just look at the Middle East … You’re going to see the contrast and the contrast is going to be clear.”

Sources close to the former president say that while Trump is aware of the gravity of Thursday’s debate and the importance of hammering a message, they acknowledged his propensity to veer into lengthy, off topic rants that leaves the possibility they may have fallout to