Trump can not stop attacking Biden. G.O.P. The strategists want him to do it.

WASHINGTON – While President Trump was struggling to explain the difficulty of negotiating a trade deal with China, he adopted a parallel argument: a Democratic president would agree that a less favorable deal.

But not any Democratic president.

"China is dreaming that Sleepy Joe Biden, or one of the others, was elected in 2020," Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "They love to tear America!"

On Monday afternoon, Biden, who made his first trip to New Hampshire since taking part in the 2020 race, was happily resuming fire, criticizing Twitter's blur on the threats and flattery Mr. Trump had directed. against Beijing. "He takes it very hard, a lot of bravery, no action," said the former vice president of press.

This is precisely the kind of struggle that Mr. Biden has had: a direct confrontation with the outgoing president on an issue that places Mr. Biden in a role of statesman, well above the primary democratic scrum and of all the liberal test-takers in there.

For Mr. Trump's advisers, this was another example of the president's inability to resist a contribution in kind to a democrat who, according to their own polls, would be well placed to defeat him. next year.

However, the president told councilors that he thought he could introduce Mr. Biden, a long-time veteran in Washington, as the representative of a sclerotic political class in much the same way as Hillary Clinton, wounding him. with enough attacks and let go for Mr. Biden to be staggered in the general election or collapse in the primary.

In the three weeks following the announcement of his candidacy, Mr. Trump tried two nicknames, accused his opponent and family members of corrupt relations with Ukraine (prompting a coordinated democratic response) and arguing that he was naive to American threats. faces.

Earlier this month, as Biden began his campaign with the firefighters union down, Trump launched a barrage of nearly 60 tweets and retweets on his support for grassroots union members, expressing his concern about Mr. Biden is with a crucial constituency. Assists said Mr. Trump was perfectly aware of the fact that he had won in 2016 with the support of union voters who had not followed their leaders in their support for Hillary Clinton.

But after all that, he then compared Mr. Biden's candidacy to his own 2016 campaign, in which Mr. Trump never gave up after his ballot, and hinted that Mr. Biden would probably the Democratic candidate.

Trump's attacks on Biden defied the pleas of his own aides, who believe that almost all other candidates would be easier to defeat, and left the Republicans perplexed while delighting Biden's supporters.

"This shows everyone that the Vice President is the candidate who is most concerned about Trump," said Cedric Richmond, Louisiana's representative, Biden's supporter, adding: "It just can not be safe." 39, to help himself during the mandate of his direction. "

Matt Gorman, a veteran of the Republican presidential campaigns, said that Mr. Trump was simply giving him a present.

"In a Democratic primary, President Trump's attacks are the best thing that can happen to you," said Gorman. "This raises you, gives you a huge boost for fundraising and sucks the oxygen out of your competition."

The president's attacks on Biden have also drawn the attention of congressional Republicans, who would prefer a more easily caricatured boogeyman to join the Democrat ticket next year. "Bernie Sanders is the perfect guy for us," said Chris LaCivita, a long-time Republican strategist. "He looks like the teacher of" Back to the Future "and is a convinced socialist."

Mr. Trump's offensive also accelerated G.O.P. White House officials, Trump campaigners and Capitol Hill Republicans at a rally similar to that of last year at Camp David, according to a senior Republican Senate official.

Yet some Democrats, after seeing how Mr. Trump has turned into a fanfare and finally bulldozing the Republican field in 2016, are concerned that Mr. Trump has judiciously chosen to define Mr. Biden as the leading runner from the start , identifying it as the biggest threat in the world. general election.

The Republicans of the super PAC supporting Trump have taken up this theory, claiming in recent weeks that the party must begin to erode Mr. Biden's credibility and portray it as the image of a rotten status quo. responsible for the organization.

Super PAC officials, America First Action, have claimed that this would allow Mr. Trump to retain the branding he has cultivated during the 2016 campaign, not to mention that he is president. in exercise.

But some Republicans close to Mr. Trump paint a more simplistic picture of the president's actions: the fact that he just covered Biden's cable news and pitched cover-based tweets. and polls on the race for democracy, which he has heard talk about. And senior Trump campaigners have recently told other Republican officials that they would rather not face Mr. Biden in the general election, according to a party personality familiar with the talks.

Mr. Trump's associates are not united on the best way to undermine Mr. Biden. His initial strength in the Democratic primary surprised them.

A recent poll conducted by Tony Fabrizio, one of the leading Republican pollsters, for the Trump campaign, showed that Mr Biden beat Mr. Trump easily, according to three people informed of the results. Senator Bernie Sanders did not perform as well as Trump in the poll, but also defeated Trump one-on-one in key states, the people said.

Meanwhile, Republicans hoping to save Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, one of the party's most at-risk MPs, found Biden to head Trump in the state, no Democratic candidate in the presidential election has been worn since 1996.

Mr. Trump was told about his campaign, although it is not known exactly how long he had received. Nevertheless, his aides and his allies urged him to stop drawing attention to Mr. Biden, saying that it was better for the Democrats to argue and weaken each other. during their primary.

"The campaign must force Biden to return to the Democratic primary," said Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief strategist of the White House. "They allowed him to launch a strategy of general election free of the potential bear pit created by the populist left. Sanders and Warren are your first lines of defense. They must be equipped with a weapon to attack, especially against China. "

Asked about the president's interest in Biden, Tim Murtaugh, spokesman for the Trump campaign, said they "see the realm of Democrats as a big socialist body with over 20 heads, including including Joe Biden. " He then sentenced Mr. Biden to commercial agreements. , job losses in the manufacturing sector and his comments on the Iowa campaign minimizing China's threat to the United States.

Trump's incessant attacks only prompted the former vice president to continue harassing him, inserting lines in his stump speech, which he hopes will be picked up by the media, creating a new cycle. attacks and responses.

On Monday in New Hampshire, Mr Biden invoked Mr Trump 's scathing characterization of the state' s opioid problems.

"One of the worst statements he made during his phone conversation with the Mexican president was quoting New Hampshire as a quote," a drug-laden den, "Biden told Manchester.

Trump, who called Biden "Sleepy Joe" and "SleepyCreepyJoe," in turn seized one of the former vice president's gaffes, noting that Biden had called Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister . "It was a beauty," said the president Politico last week.

Most striking is perhaps Mr. Trump's personal attorney, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, even sought to visit Ukraine to meet with the country's elected president and urge him to continue his investigation into the role of Mr. Biden's son, Hunter, in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.