EVEN WITH TRIAL BURDEN, TRUMP OUTCAMPAIGNS BIDEN. Many Democrats see the trial of former President Donald Trump, prosecuted by the elected Democratic district attorney of Manhattan, as a valuable political tool. While Trump is tied down in a courtroom, required to be in court every day trial is in session, President Joe Biden can be out on the campaign trail, meeting voters. What a contrast, Democrats say (while at the same time denying that District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump is politically motivated).

Maybe the tie-Trump-down strategy will work. It’s only been happening for a week, and with that and other trials, Democrats hope to immobilize Trump for most, if not all, of the presidential campaign. But so far, the strategy may have inadvertently highlighted Biden’s weaknesses, and Trump’s strengths, on the campaign trail.

It should probably go without saying, but Trump is good with crowds. On April 10, while heading to a fundraiser, he stopped into a Chick-fil-A in the Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta. Trump walked in and began schmoozing with the staff, mostly young black people, and then with the customers. He bought 30 milkshakes for the group. He signed a MAGA hat. He joked around. He posed for pictures. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it got a lot of attention, especially in the conservative press, where it was taken as evidence of Trump’s increasing appeal to black voters. (The visit had been arranged by black conservative pro-Trump activists in Georgia.)

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Then, this last Tuesday, Trump left his trial in Manhattan and went to visit a bodega in Harlem where, in 2022, a worker fought off a robber, eventually killing the robber with a knife. Bragg immediately charged the bodega worker with murder and set high bail; after a public outcry, Bragg dropped the charges. On Tuesday, Trump attracted an enthusiastic crowd chanting “Four more years!” behind the Secret Service barriers. 

An article in the Daily Beast suggested that Trump’s bodega visit “should scare the hell out of Democrats” because of the presence of some Hispanic voters who clearly no longer feel any obligation of loyalty to the Democratic Party. What if they abandon Biden for the man they cheered at the bodega? Trump’s visit was arranged by the head of the Bodega and Small Business Group, who thanked the ex-president for coming. It made a point about Trump’s (possibly) growing appeal to Hispanic voters.

So Trump has made the best of a period in which he has to spend an enormous amount of time dealing with the prosecutions leveled at him by elected Democrats or their appointees. That brings the story to Biden.

Perhaps wanting to show that he, too, could do man-of-the-people stuff — after all, he is Working Class Joe! — the president, during a campaign swing in Pennsylvania, visited a Sheetz gas station in the Pittsburgh area and a Wawa convenience store in Philadelphia. You’ll have to judge for yourself after watching videos, but it seems safe to say that Biden’s presence did not cause the excitement that Trump’s did in their respective fast-food runs.

“The crowd inside [Sheetz] seemed a little less enthusiastic for the president than … the excited crowd that greeted Trump at Chick-fil-A,” the Daily Mail reported. “The crowd and employees smiled politely at Biden, dressed in his famous aviator sunglasses, as Biden went behind the counter to take photos with a cashier. However, it was more formal than Trump, who worked the room speaking to supporters, shaking hands, giving autographs and even hugging a woman.”

In addition — again, you’ll have to watch for yourself — Biden did not seem up to a lot of schmoozing. He moved quite slowly, and when a young staffer at Wawa suggested Biden have a milkshake, Biden was slow on the uptake. He knew what was going on, but everything he did was just slow, slow, slow. 

In short, Biden’s two quick-stop visits simply did not have the flair that Trump’s did. Indeed, it seemed weird that Biden copied what Trump was doing in the first place. After all, Trump was trying to get some campaigning in between his trial and other legal commitments, while Biden’s campaigning was supposed to emphasize the contrast between himself and his criminal-defendant opponent. Instead, it again showed the differences in talent and showmanship between the two candidates.

And it was a dramatic illustration of the intensity gap in this year’s election. Many polls have shown that Republicans are more enthusiastic about voting for Trump than Democrats are about voting for Biden. Just look at some of these headlines from the past year: “Joe Biden’s 2024 enthusiasm gap,” “The enthusiasm gap shadowing Biden,” “Biden’s first 2024 foe: His enthusiasm problem with Democratic voters,” “Democrats’ unproven plan to close Biden’s enthusiasm gap.”

Enthusiasm is certainly not the only factor in a campaign, but it is an important one, and Biden is just not creating the level of enthusiasm needed to roll to victory. Maybe that will change. Maybe Biden will pick up, or maybe Trump’s trials will eventually make Republican voters less enthusiastic about him. But remember: Some Democrats hoped indicting Trump would push him out of the race. That plan backfired. Now some of those same Democrats hope putting Trump on trial will push him out of the race. Yes, that plan might work, but it also might backfire. Just look at the lessons of Chick-fil-A and the bodega and Sheetz and Wawa.