Can Donald Trump be tamed for the 2020 election?

Donald Trump is at his best when he’s campaigning. The man loves the limelight, the massive rallies in 20,000-seat arenas broadcasted in real time by Fox News, and the accolades, applause, and chants from his red-hatted disciples. Trump won the 2016 election by letting his force of personality take over the campaign and riding on the exhaustion of the Clinton political brand.

2020, however, is not 2016. Trump can claim to be an outsider populist all he wants, but the ‘drain the swamp’ mantra doesn’t have the same allure when you’ve been in the middle of the swamp for the last three years. Trump’s campaign staffers don’t want to get on the boss’s vindictive side, but they too recognise that extending the Trump presidency for another four years will require a more savvy political operation than the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style that the brash billionaire loves so much. It’s the reason why the Trump re-election campaign is bulking up its staff, collecting the phone numbers of potential supporters, fundraising across the country, and pouring money into everything from on-the-ground canvassing and opposition research to digital advertising.