Trump's team had to stop the campaign to revisit the campaign message, while the President unexpectedly proposed the idea of postponing the election.
As the election campaign made more efforts to protect the government's pandemic response, US President Donald Trump turned it all up when proposing unverified "miraculous" Covid-19 remedies.
At an event in Florida on July 31, Trump mentioned his current difficulties.
With Trump unable to organize regular campaigning events and the message of economic focus that is no longer relevant at the moment, the team in his re-election campaign is seeking to "clear the table".
After a six-day pause, a new advertising campaign targeting Democratic candidate Joe Biden began airing on August 3, according to an anonymous campaign official.
But it seems that Trump himself is the biggest obstacle to the campaign, when he rejected calls from Republican lawmakers and allies to come up with a consistent policy to not "continue to trample himself."
The final week of chaotic July ended a month that could be arguably the most ominous of Trump's tenure.
A series of public opinion surveys show that Trump is losing to Biden, who has a national support rate that is ahead of Trump by two numbers.
Constantly facing difficulties on many fronts, Trump's campaign decided to "reevaluate" a comprehensive re-election strategy, in terms of both spending and message, while stopping TV commercials.
Stepien is trying to better understand the dynamics and resources of the campaign, or how to create current campaign promotions.
Stepien is also reviewing staffing to see if Parscale's campaign strategy makes sense.
The "appraisal" led by Stepien was carried out when Trump's election campaign was entangled with a fundraising committee not reporting nearly $ 170 million in spending through the companies Parscale ran.
Campaign officials said the new ads beginning Aug. 3 would attempt to portray Biden as the "left" puppet, first aired in battle states, where mail voting schedules are available.
Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin are among the states that begin to vote by mail 45 days before the official election on November 3.
Trump's election team on April 29 gathered all employees at their Arlington headquarters to "call for solidarity," according to an unnamed official.
But even as Stepien and his top campaign assistant tried to convince everyone in the team that "the country was coming to their feet," Trump seemed to be top notch and not change his strategy.
Trump's allies say they recognize that Covid-19 is likely to become a central issue for voters ahead of the election and call him to show his country's leadership to respond to the pandemic.
Instead, Trump shared a video showing support to a group of doctors promoting the effects of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.
Trump also openly expressed his position against medical experts.
While the controversy over his speech with Covid-19 has not subsided, Trump continues to push himself deep into the crisis by proposing the idea of postponing elections, accusing the form of vote-by-mail "wrong and fraudulent".
Trump's idea immediately encountered an unprecedented wave of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, when they thought he was exceeding his power limit.
Democrats and many activist groups say voting by mail is a way to protect voters from a pandemic.
Some of Trump's allies and campaign assistants admit that with the President's reaction, they are having a lot of difficulty "bringing down" Biden in the eyes of voters.
"One thing we noticed in the groups we focused on was that people didn't know anything about Joe Biden," said Kelly Sadler, communications director for America First, the Trump support group.
Recent polls show Biden ahead of Trump in battle states and fierce competition at Republican strongholds like Texas and Georgia.
America First stopped running ads against Biden in Michigan, acknowledging that it seemed to offer little advantage to Trump in November. The group now focuses on states like North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump's campaign drew a number of scenarios, in which Trump lost a number of states that had won in 2016, but ended up being elected.
However, the Trump campaign had to stop to review the strategy as "good news" for Biden's team.
"Well, the message evaluation is complete," he said.