Hello. Welcome to On Politics, your information to the day in nationwide politics. I’m Nick Corasaniti, your host on Tuesdays for our protection of
Hello. Welcome to On Politics, your information to the day in nationwide politics. I’m Nick Corasaniti, your host on Tuesdays for our protection of all issues media and messaging.
If you’re like me, you’ve been getting about two or three text messages a day from the Biden and Trump presidential campaigns, with the anticipatory excitement that accompanies each incoming-text “ding” quickly dulled by yet another mass message.
No, just me?
OK, well, for those of you who receive only one candidate’s texts, or none at all, we’re going to take a trip down iMessage memory lane and look at some of the texts from President Trump and Joe Biden, and what they say about their campaigns’ messaging strategies.
Mass texting is largely a fund-raising tool, allowing campaigns to instantly solicit contributions from thousands or even millions of supporters. The texts arrive from five-digit numbers — 303-30 for Mr. Biden and 880-22 for Mr. Trump. (If you’ve received a text from a full 10-digit cellphone number asking you to join an organizing event, that’s a different campaigning tool, and the messages are coming directly from real people. We’ll cover those another time.)
The Trump campaign’s mass texting style adheres closely to Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed; not a single text goes out without some word in all capital letters, and the texts are rarely longer than a tweet. They also tend to follow the substance of the president’s social feeds, usually animated by grievances.
In April of last year, there were texts from “President Trump” declaring that “we must stop the MASSIVE CARAVANS” and urging supporters to “DONATE NOW.” In August, “Don Jr.” was condemning Representative Joaquin Castro, the Texas Democrat who had “shared personal info of Trump donors. DESPICABLE!” (Also: “Donate NOW!”)
When the impeachment process began, a daily deluge of texts hit Trump supporters, repeatedly labeling the process a “HOAX” and “WITCH HUNT!” and “TOTAL SCAM,” all with links to donate.
For the Trump campaign, texting has become an essential way to monetize the outrage Mr. Trump can instill in his base, done right in the moment, with more urgency than mass emails. Within hours of the Senate’s voting to acquit Mr. Trump, the campaign sent out a text proclaiming him “VINDICATED!” and promising a “4X-MATCH” on donations.
Across the Trump campaign’s texts, Facebook ads and email blasts, the messaging is almost always in sync. When the campaign is advertising on Facebook to donate for a “gold card” or hawking St. Patrick’s Day campaign merchandise, the texting closely follows.
Texts from the Biden campaign are, unsurprisingly, markedly different.
Words are rarely in all-caps, and the tone can be downright polite. At least half a dozen texts have simply started with “Please?” Others state, “I hate asking for money.”
The text-message version of Mr. Biden even apologizes if he corresponds late in the day. “Hey, it’s Joe Biden. Hope I didn’t catch you too late,” read a text from March 31, received at 8:28 p.m. on the East Coast.
And while the Trump campaign’s messages can be almost alarmingly direct with someone who hasn’t donated in a while — “LAPSED,” read one — the Biden campaign plays a bit more passive-aggressively: “Is this the right number?” a Biden text read in early January.
The texts often follow Mr. Biden’s loquacious style, with many messages broken into multiple paragraphs. One text sent on Dec. 27 began with “Quick — It’s Joe Biden,” then stretched for five paragraphs, requiring the user to scroll through lines like, “Beating Donald Trump is the fight of our lives. Failure isn’t an option.”
The Biden campaign has been using its messages to tease major campaign developments. A recent text to those “anxiously awaiting my pick for VP” promised those who signed up via a link would be “among the first to know.”
The campaign has also occasionally used the mass texts to collect data on its supporters. One text asked users to share their opinions of voting by mail (and as with the V.P. tease, didn’t ask for money). A text sent on Sunday asked voters to fill out a survey (with their emails, ZIP codes and cellphone numbers) indicating whether they would vote for Mr. Biden in the general election.
Clearly, both campaigns do their best to adhere to the style of their candidate — and they have to in order to be effective. Sliding into the text messages on a personal cellphone is among the most intimate forms of outreach in a campaign’s messaging arsenal. So it’s no surprise that the Trump campaign’s texting takes on the familiar tone of the president’s Twitter feed.
There is, however, one phrase that has been conspicuously absent from the Biden campaign’s messages in 2020: There was no mention of “malarkey.”
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Ad of the Week: Trump, Biden and China
For the past 48 hours, the Trump campaign has been running a set of three attack ads attempting to tie two messages together. First, the ads try to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak. Then they blast Joe Biden for criticizing President Trump’s decision in January to restrict travel from China.
The campaign has spent about $420,000 so far on the ads, running them in swing states like Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The ad with the most money behind it, “Responsible,” has aired 160 times in Florida markets over the past two days, as it becomes increasingly clear that the Trump campaign will continue with its xenophobic messaging on China.
The message: In the first few seconds, the ad sounds like a Democratic attack ad, as a narrator proclaims the coronavirus “infected millions” and “crushed the world economy.” But quickly a map of China fills the screen as the narrator exclaims, “One nation deserves the blame: China.”
Halfway through the ad, the message shifts to Mr. Biden, who the narrator claims “coddles China.” Black-and-white footage of Mr. Biden provides the visual contrast.
The takeaway: The ad dovetails with Mr. Trump’s strategy of assuming no responsibility for the severity of the outbreak in the United States and pinning the blame on China. It also seeks to highlight tenuous ties between Mr. Biden and China.
Over all, it illustrates the challenge facing Mr. Trump in the general election: Even as he goes on the offensive against Mr. Biden, he’ll have to continually defend his response to the pandemic as well.
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