Trump’s light campaign schedule as Harris, Walz, Vance barnstorm

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to stay off the presidential campaign rally circuit until after the Democratic National Convention, which ends Aug. 22.

The Republican nominee’s schedule this month defies conventional campaign strategy, and draws a sharp contrast with Trump’s schedule in August of 2016, the last time he ran a successful race for the White House.

That month, Trump held 27 raucous campaign rallies across 15 states. So far this month, Trump has only held one rally.

A reporter asked Trump on Thursday why he had not been “campaigning this week.”

“Because I’m leading by a lot and because I’m letting their convention go through and I am campaigning a lot,” Trump replied during a wide-ranging press conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The reporter followed up: “Are you going to pick up your travel?”

“After their convention, yeah,” Trump replied, referring again to the Democratic convention, which begins Aug. 19.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Democratic opponents, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — as well as his Republican running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — have all spent the week barnstorming presidential battleground states.

After debuting their partnership Tuesday night at a rally in Philadelphia, Harris and Walz spoke at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. The pair will head to events in Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. All five states are highly competitive in November’s election.

For the past five days, Trump has been at his resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he has conducted phone interviews and podcasts, and where he held Thursday’s hourlong press conference.

His public schedule also appears to confirm his stated plan to cut back on rally travel in the coming weeks. The only event currently posted on the Trump campaign website’s “Events” page is a rally on Friday in Montana that will partly benefit GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy.

Sheehy is hoping to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in November, and Trump’s appearance is likely to energize Republicans in the deep red state.

While he is in Montana, Trump will attend a campaign fundraiser. Then he will stop in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday for another fundraiser before returning to Florida.

CNBC reached out to the Trump campaign to confirm that the Republican nominee does not plan to resume large, in-person presidential campaign rallies until after the Democratic convention.

“President Trump has a robust, travel schedule — consisting of rallies, messaging events, and fundraisers in the next week. He has…