The GOP’s closing argument: 'Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it'

Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sounded their closing refrain in the final week of the campaign, arguing that Harris is responsible for the current state of the nation and that the only remedy is the return of the 45th president.

“Kamala broke it, but I will fix it,” Trump declared at his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday evening. The line has become something of a secondary slogan for the campaign, with Trump himself and his surrogates alike repeating it at every opportunity.

The campaign appears to be banking on most of the electorate deciding they were better off under Trump and aims to cast Harris as the one pulling the strings in the Oval Office. “Fixing it,” moreover, refers to his laundry list of policy items, in particular his border security and tax policies, but applies to initiatives across all the major issues.

"Trump is talking about solving problems for Americans while Kamala Harris is focused exclusively on attacking him," one campaign official told Fox News. He is "asking people to vote for something, while she is asking for people to vote against something."

Allies and advisors follow suit

Other surrogates have embraced the messaging. In a recent op-ed for Fox Business, former Trump advisor Larry Kudlow highlighted inflation data and cost-of-living figures to show that the American people are worse off. He took the “riff” a measure further, however, by highlighting Trump’s allies, who would work in the administration to help repair the nation.

“There are lots of other folks — both new and old allies — who are helping Mr. Trump, but this is an important representative group,” wrote Kudlow. “[T]he group, along with many others, shows that Donald Trump has the confidence and good judgment to get the very best people on his team, and that's why he can say, with growing confidence: Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it. That's the riff.”

Kudlow, in particular, highlighted former Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and a handful of others.

Vance himself made the point during a Tuesday rally, saying “[t]hink about the big tent coalition that we’ve assembled. On the right, we’ve got people like Brian Kemp, Nikki Haley. On the left, we’ve got people like Tulsi Gabbard, Bobby Kennedy.”

“This is the common sense coalition that’s ready to take the country in a more positive direction. But it’s very simple. Kamala Harris broke it. And Donald Trump will fix it,” he concluded.

World leaders make the same point

The campaign is not the first to embrace such messaging. On the world stage, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a similar point in March of this year, amid escalating conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. “President [Donald Trump] was a president of peace. He commanded respect in the world, and created the conditions for peace,” Orban said. “During his presidency there was peace in the Middle East and peace in Ukraine. We need him back more than ever!” 

"It is up to Americans to make their own decision, and it is up to us Hungarians to frankly admit that it would be better for the world – and better for Hungary, too – if President Donald Trump were to return to power," he added.

Trump himself has repeatedly pointed to Orban’s comments and did so again at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier this week.

“Victor Orban, the powerful Prime Minister of Hungary said, ‘bring back Trump, and everything will stop. All these wars, everything will stop. They respected him.’ He actually said differently. He said they feared him, but I don't care,” Trump said.

“China was afraid. Russia was afraid. They're all afraid. And you know what? I don't want [them] to be afraid. I just want respect,” he added. “And they got to respect us again right now. They're laughing at our country. They're laughing at us. If we win, America will be feared and respected again and then on issue after issue, Kamala broke it, and I will fix it.”

“Why didn’t she do it?”

Harris, for her part, initially struggled to articulate her own positions and even embraced some of Trump’s, such as ending taxation on tips. While she has gradually outlined more of a platform for her future efforts, the Trump campaign has fallen back on a second refrain, namely asking why she had not pursued such goals while in office over the past four years.

“She spends all of her time complaining about everything, but does nothing about it. She's going to do this. She's going to do that. Why the hell didn't she do it right?” Trump said at a Wednesday rally. Indeed, Harris chained herself to the perceived failures of the Biden White House by saying on "The View" earlier this month that "that she couldn’t think of anything she’d have done differently than President Joe Biden during the last four years."