Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), seemed to have been caught flat-footed when President Joe Biden withdrew from the race three weeks ago and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on his way out. Suddenly, less than four months out from the election, the battlefield has changed entirely. 

Instantly, the Democratic Party machine cranked up and went into overdrive. It managed to transform a candidate once considered so weak as to be a “drag on the ticket” into a media darling. This stunning sequence of events left Republicans reeling and Trump himself struggling to regain his footing.

Exacerbating the situation was the media’s concerted effort to use a sarcastic remark Vance made three years ago to portray him as an extremist. But after a bumpy few weeks, Vance showed voters Sunday precisely why Trump tapped him as his running mate. His expert handling of interviews in decidedly hostile territory managed to accomplish what has, so far, eluded the Trump campaign: He defined Harris. 

Vance told CNN host Dana Bash that Harris is a chameleon.

She is “whatever she says she is. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different in front of another audience,” he said.

“She’s not running a political campaign. She’s running a movie. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is scripted. She doesn’t have her policy positions out there,” he continued.

Vance pointed out that Harris hasn’t explained why she no longer supports a ban on fracking, defunding the police, or open borders.

“She should have to answer for why she presents a different set of policies to one audience and a different set of policies to another audience,” he argued. 

“This is a fundamentally fake person. She’s different depending on who she’s in front of,” Vance added.

As Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson sees it, “Republicans have finally come up with a brand for Kamala”: Being a fake.

He cites her “varying accents depending on the crowd, her empty suit intellect, and changing almost every major policy position she had just a month ago.” 

Jacobson explained that “to brand someone effectively, there has to be some truth in what you say. That’s why ‘Low Energy Jeb’ was so effective — people heard it and laughed and thought, yeah, he is low energy. You have to exploit what people already are inclined to believe. … There’s a truth there to her fakery, and it easily could be turned into her brand.”

Republican political consultant Alex Castellanos arrived at a similar conclusion. He noted that since Harris launched her campaign, Trump has been “campaigning like a cornered animal. Late-night tweets, boiling with rage, are back. He attacks the Republican governor of Georgia and his wife. He signaled desperation instead of confidence in another hold-your-breath, ‘He said what?’ news conference.”

“There is no concentration of firepower in Trumpworld,” Castellanos argued.

He said Trump is “throwing 10 campaigns” against Harris rather than one.

“First, the Trump campaign brands Harris as the hand-picked candidate of an anti-democratic process. Next, they paint her as a political version of Jerzy Kosinski’s clueless Chauncey Gardiner, an inept soul who lacks the mental capacity the Presidency requires. Then, the opposite charge: The cunning Harris skillfully covered up Biden’s mental decline. A moment later, she is dangerously liberal Kamala. No, the story is she’s a failure: As Biden’s partner, she is equally responsible for the flaws of the administration. By the way, she is not black and only draws crowds with free pizza,” Castellanos said.

According to Castellanos, “to stop Harris,” the Trump campaign must show voters that she “is not what she appears to be at all.”

She is a faker.

Castellanos provided a detailed list of specific, actionable ways for the campaign to accomplish this.

Trump can and must take back control of the narrative. Before he was broadsided by Biden’s abrupt withdrawal and Kamala’s ascent, Trump’s behavior was far more reasonable than it had ever been, and he was running a remarkably disciplined campaign. He must return to that discipline.

Vance seems to have articulated the focus of their future attacks against Harris. As Jacobson noted, the GOP has finally found a compelling “brand” for Harris.

And despite his shaky start, Vance has hit his stride and is turning out to be a valuable asset. He bats away obnoxious questions from liberal cable hosts, says what they don’t want him to say, and leaves them looking just a little bit frustrated. 

Trump may be down, but he is not out. It would be foolish to underestimate him.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.