Donald Trump’s Campaign Is in a World of Pain

Trump needs to go into damage control mode. Is he up to the task? · Fortune

On Wednesday, Donald Trump will give an address that, he claims, will lay out all of the facts of his case against Hillary Clinton, focusing on her “failed policies and bad judgment.”

But even as he zeroes in on his opponent, Trump will be facing an audience that knows full well that the past few weeks have been disastrous for his campaign. Even if he doesn’t focus on the series of blows his campaign has endured, the presumptive Republican nominee will need to do his best to show that his campaign can find its footing. Here’s a look at some of the problems the candidate and his campaign are facing:

Lack of Discipline

One of the things voters seemed to like most about Donald Trump was that he “told it like it was” and didn’t seem to have a filter. With the primary contests in the rearview mirror and the general election approaching, though, that approach has been more a weakness than a strength for the candidate.

During a time when he should have been readying for battle with Clinton, Trump instead chose to talk incessantly about the ongoing Trump University fraud suit and question the fairness of the judge in that case, claiming that because he was of Mexican heritage he couldn’t be impartial, given Trump’s comments about Mexican people. Not only did Trump double down on his comments, he told his surrogates to keep talking about the issue in the press. Then he told another reporter that a Muslim judge also might not be able to be fair to him.

Then came the Orlando shooting. While other candidates were tweeting out thoughts and prayers or perhaps talking about policy, Trump tweeted a congratulations to himself for his comments on banning Muslim entry to the U.S. and his proposed approach to terrorism.

Lack of Leadership and Organization

Trump barely has a campaign structure. His campaign manager was, until Trump fired him earlier this week, Corey Lewandowski, who did not have any experience running a national campaign, and seemed to mostly serve as a buffer between Trump and the political professionals on staff like Paul Manafort. It looks like the campaign is mostly run by Trump himself, often without a clear strategy.

Trump has around 70 people on his staff, compared with nearly 700 for Clinton. In an election where turnout is everything and a sophisticated get out the vote effort can make a huge difference, especially in swing states like Ohio and Florida, that simply isn’t going to cut it. Trump has balked at building a campaign infrastructure, and he didn’t really need one during the primaries -- primary voters tend to be more politically engaged, and Trump was able to easily reach them via free media. This brings us to the final peg of the three-legged stool of Trump troubles.