The Daily Fuckup

The Trump campaign posted a memo on August 24, 2024, that framed Kamala Harris’s expected post-convention lift as limited and short-lived. The memo, dated August 22, said Harris was likely to get a “small” and “temporary” bounce after the Democratic National Convention, and argued that the race remained “fundamentally tied,” especially in battleground states. ([donaldjtrump.com](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/a1a27b2c-2cb0-4c9c-b698-4e77a03ce9dc))

The document also tried to put the expected polling movement in historical context. It cited prior party conventions and argued that short-term bumps often faded quickly. The memo pointed readers to the battleground map rather than the national numbers, saying the campaign’s target was 270 electoral votes. ([donaldjtrump.com](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/a1a27b2c-2cb0-4c9c-b698-4e77a03ce9dc))

That makes the memo less a declaration that Harris had secured the race than a warning against reading too much into the post-DNC moment. The campaign’s position, as written in the document, was that the convention would probably help Harris in the polls for a stretch, but not change the underlying state of the contest. ([donaldjtrump.com](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/a1a27b2c-2cb0-4c9c-b698-4e77a03ce9dc))

The bigger takeaway is narrower than the spin around it: the Trump campaign wanted the post-convention conversation to stay focused on how long any Harris bump might last, not on whether the convention had shifted the race for good. The memo itself supplies the claim. It does not prove how durable the effect will be. ([donaldjtrump.com](https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/a1a27b2c-2cb0-4c9c-b698-4e77a03ce9dc))