Behind closed doors, top strategists for Donald Trump’s campaign told donors that they believe they can flip the Democratic strongholds Minnesota and Virginia red.

Trump’s team presented their plan to the former president’s financial backers at a Republican National Committee retreat on Saturday.

Availing themselves of internal surveys, pollster Tony Fabrizio – one of Trump’s favorites – and senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles made their pitch to the donors.

According to two witnesses who were present at the meeting, which took place at the Four Seasons resort in Palm Beach, the presentation was centered around finances, messaging, and the political map.

Using internal polls, Trump’s strategists demonstrated how tight the election is in the two states

The upshot of Fabrizio’s polls showed Trump eking out narrow victories in critical swing states from 2020, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

But the politician’s top strategists didn’t stop there. They also discussed an ambitious plan to make further inroads into Democratic territory.

Trump’s team argued that the former president could defeat Biden in the Democratic strongholds of Minnesota and Virginia. 

Meanwhile, President Biden’s strategists harbor similar hopes, aspiring to flip North Carolina, where Republicans have won for the past three presidential elections.

Biden’s team also hopes to prevail in Florida, where Republicans have emerged victorious in the previous two presidential elections.

In 2020, Biden nabbed the presidency by a margin of 74 electoral votes. Wins in critical states like Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia helped propel him to victory.

‘I think that the Biden campaign is deliberately playing a faux game by talking about [how] they’re going to expand the map in Florida and North Carolina,’ Trump adviser Chris LaCivita told NBC. 

‘But we have a real, real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota.’

‘We have a real, real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota,’ said Chris LaCivita (pictured0, a senior adviser for Trump

In a head-to-head matchup in Minnesota, Trump’s team found that the former president would win with 49 percent to Biden’s 46 percent

The internal polling conducted by Trump’s team is fairly consistent with the few public surveys that depict Biden with a narrow lead in Virginia.

However, the strategists’ polling that evinces a Trump win in Minnesota is at variance with the limited surveys that have been completed in that state.

But both the state polls and the polls conducted by Trump’s campaign fall within their margins of error.

This means one thing: A tight race in Minnesota and Virginia.

LaCivita explained that they tested Trump’s success in three different scenarios: in a head-to-head matchup with Biden, and in four-way and six-way races.

In a six-way competition in Minnesota, the strategists found that Trump and Biden were locked at 40 percent each, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the Independent ticket, scored 9 percent.

When the parameters were narrowed, and it became a race between four candidates, Trump beat Biden 46 percent to 41 percent.

In a head-to-head election, Trump still defeated Biden 49 percent to 46 percent.

In 2020, Biden won the presidency with the help of key victories in critical states like Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia 

Biden’s team is also eyeing Republican territory, hoping to flip GOP bastions like North Carolina and Florida in November

In 2020, Biden prevailed in Minnesota by about seven percentage points. The state has not gone to Republicans since Richard Nixon trounced George McGovern in 1972.

In Virginia, Trump’s top officials found that Biden pipped out a narrow victory over Trump in a six-way competition- Biden finished with 40 percent, Trump with 37 percent, and Kennedy with 8 percent.

In a four-candidate race, that margin narrowed even further, with Biden at 42 percent and Trump at 41 percent.

In a head-to-head matchup, Trump fared worse, finishing with 44 percent, while Biden scooped up 48 percent.

Trump’s strategists have not yet made their full surveys, as well as their methodology, available to the public.

Campaigns traditionally make sweeping promises to donors- including winning in enemy territory- as an inducement for contributing larger sums of money.

Biden’s team issued a scathing statement in response to the meeting conducted by Trump’s pollster and top advisers.

In Virginia, Trump’s advisers found that Trump would currently finish with 44 percent to Biden’s 48 percent- a gap that they hope to narrow before November 

‘Trump’s team has so little campaign or infrastructure to speak of they’re resorting to leaking memos that say ”the polls we paid for show us winning, don’t ask us to show you the whole poll though,”’ Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.

‘While we have 150 offices open with hundreds of staff across key battlegrounds, the RNC is closing offices and hemorrhaging money on legal fees,’ Hitt continued.

‘Joe Biden has hit every battleground at least once, while Trump’s in the courtroom or on the golf course.’

‘We’ll see how that translates in November.’ 

For shame

Re “Virginia Beach rejects collective bargaining of city employees” (April 30): Virginia Beach City Council has made the decision not to support collective bargaining for its employees. What a shame. Our city employees do their best to keep things running smoothly. They do this, despite some challenges in working conditions, despite the fear of the consequences of speaking up about problems encountered on the job and despite pay and benefits that are not on par with other regions in our state.

It would be wise to study our city versus Chesterfield County, a much more accurate comparison than to our surrounding jurisdictions. For the council members who voted against collective bargaining, please let me know that the next time we have a jet plane crash in our city, you will respond without hesitation, even though that could permanently endanger your health and safety. Our firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and police officers responded.

The next time we have an attack in the city workplace and police officers, EMS personnel and firefighters respond to that emergency, I hope you will do your part and respond as well, even though your life would be in danger. You can arrange for a photo op to show to your constituents. The next time we have a major storm move through here with damaging winds, rains and flooding and our first responders and our public works folks are out in the elements to help all of us, please let me know that you will do your part as well.

For all of these emergencies, you simply need appropriate gear, training, years of experience and a willingness to truly serve our community. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.

Ginny Diezel, Virginia Beach

Help needed

“It takes a village to raise a child” is a well-known proverb that emphasizes the importance of a community positively interacting and providing for children to grow up in a safe and healthy environment.

Children are innocent, reliant, sweet and sometimes sour beings who are oblivious to the world and its hardships. As parents, we need our families, neighbors, churches and businesses to play their roles within the village and take accountability to assist with child care. Together, we should ensure that we all thrive and secure our jobs and future.

Expenses mount and being a parent is challenging, especially with the cost of living. All businesses are entitled to make a profit, but the real profit is when we start supporting the needs of families in our community. It would be ideal to have affordable and alternative child care centers in our communities that are friendly to people with disabilities and offer after-school care and recreational activities.

We propose finding a way of giving back to our families, where the burden of child care is no longer a discussion. We need the support of community resources, along with businesses and professionals agreeing to work together to provide coordinated care.

Care is love and support from those around you every day. Together, we can decrease our level of violence and poverty while increasing prosperity for our youth, who are our future.

Chiquita Hubbard, Virginia Organizing member, Newport News

Clean energy

This year Virginia lawmakers advanced multiple measures to promote cleaner air, lower energy costs and foster economic growth — efforts that will create good-paying jobs and attract clean energy investment.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin now has an opportunity to sign into law a policy within his energy plan, which calls for leveraging federal energy investment. The crucial policy to achieve these goals is the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank, which will free up millions of dollars of federal clean energy funding under the Inflation Reduction Act. Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, this legislation passed out of the General Assembly with bipartisan support.

The Savings Achieved Via Efficiency Act from Del. Michael Webert and Sen. Creigh Deeds recently became law. This legislation “strengthens energy efficiency standards that were set to expire next year. It also renews the authority of the State Corporation Commission to approve energy efficiency programs for Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power,” according to an April 29 article by energynews.us.

Youngkin signed into law legislation expanding distributed solar generation through shared solar programs. This ensures an equitable energy transition by increasing the number of Virginians who can access solar.

When implemented in tandem, these bipartisan policies will help purify our air, create good-paying clean energy jobs, lower electric bills and secure a cleaner energy future in Virginia.

Heidi Dragneff, Virginia Beach

Student debt

A recent Daily Mail headline read, “Biden cancels $6 billion in student loans for 317,000.” The article stated, “President Joe ​​Biden’s latest handout brings the total forgiveness to $160 billion for 4.6 million borrowers ahead of November’s election. It doubles-down on Biden’s promise to wipe out student debt after the Supreme Court ruled he could not take the sweeping action he wanted earlier in his administration.”

This debt is not cancelled; it is merely added to the other handouts this administration has strapped on our backs. Please do not vote for this socialist puppet.

Dan Bahen, Chesapeake