Trump's team expects only a temporary advantage for Kamala Harris at the party conventions

While Donald Trump's campaign team believes Vice President Kamala Harris will receive a “boost” from the Democratic National Convention, they do not believe the week-long event will change the overall course of the race.

Democrats have been gathering in Chicago for the past four days for a star-studded convention that has drawn huge crowds, TV ratings and national celebrities on a scale not seen at the Republican convention earlier this month. But Trump's advisers continue to believe this moment will be a “sugar high” for Harris, who is now officially the Democratic nominee as the campaign enters its final two months.

“They didn't get it done. It was fine,” said a Trump adviser. “We had a good week. Happy with where things are and where they're going.”

“Still expecting a bounce back” for Democrats, the person continued.

Another source close to the Trump campaign called Wednesday's speeches by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama “impressive” but said she did not think voters would remember them.

What they particularly noticed from Trump's team, according to the informant, was how dependent the program was on celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling and how “poorly managed” the speaking schedule was.

Particular attention was drawn to Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who took the stage on the third night of the convention.

“I couldn't believe Walz was performing at 11:15 a.m. Eastern time,” the person said.

Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention last month lasted a record-breaking 93 minutes, meaning the final night of the convention lasted into the early hours of the morning.

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, have been holding events across the country throughout the week to counter the Democrats' media coverage, including an event at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona to raise awareness of illegal immigration, an issue that has been a focus of Trump's campaign.

When President Joe Biden took office, Harris was tasked with investigating the “root cause” of illegal immigration, a role that earned her the nickname “border czar,” an unofficial nickname that has been used repeatedly by Republicans.

However, according to the adviser, Trump followed much of the Democratic National Convention and regularly commented on the convention's events on social media. After Harris' speech on Thursday evening, he posted several, often false, claims.

“Everyone, Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives, wanted Roe v. Wade to be over and returned to the states,” Trump said.

He later posted that it would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” if he returned to the White House. This message appears to contradict his earlier post and the position of many Republicans who oppose abortion. He did not elaborate on why it would be “great.”

Trump also again criticized Harris for linking him to Project 2025, a sweeping conservative plan backed by more than 100 conservative groups. The former president has sought to distance himself from the right-wing government blueprint, while Democrats continue to point out that it was cobbled together by several of Trump's key allies.

“AGAIN SHE LIES ABOUT PROJECT 2025, WHICH I, LIKE ALL DEMOCRATS, HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PROJECT 2025,” Trump posted after Harris' speech on Thursday evening.

After Biden decided not to seek re-election in late July – a move that came after a difficult debate performance and doubts about his mental state – Harris performed better in most public opinion polls, including those in key swing states.

In several of those places, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada, Harris either has a narrow lead or is tied with Trump, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, representing a changed dynamic in the race compared to when Biden was the likely Democratic nominee.

Harris's belated emergence as the Democratic nominee flipped Trump's script, giving him a much shorter time frame than is typical for campaigning. That meant that the limited time frame would make it harder for Trump's campaign to counter any poll boost it would get from entering the race, choosing a running mate and hosting a convention.

“The convention was good for them, and to some extent we expected that,” said a Trump supporter familiar with the campaign's thinking. “But things will settle down. It was not a turning point.”