With Election Day coming near, Trump surrogates are scrambling to do what they think is the best for identifying with potential voters and attempting to motivate voters to go to the polls. There is great diversity when looking at the two main strategies that different surrogates have put on in their attempt to reach voters, but they both will likely generate voters for Trump.
Shifting the Focus
In her most recent media appearance, Melania Trump stated that one of her big goals would be to work on the current state of social media and help create an atmosphere that is not riddled in bullying. If the campaign wants to help attract millennial voters, it needs to be forward-looking and also needs to heavily integrate social media into the talking points; Melania Trump has done just this. This job of talking about the issue of cyberbullying essentially had to be delegated to a surrogate, as Donald Trump has been accused of cyberbullying of his own and wants to avoid being called a hypocrite. With luck, this can help soften up the Trump campaign while helping it identify with a broader audience. I think that Melania’s attempts at identifying with voters and changing the nature of discourse about the Trump campaign will help pull some independents.
Wishing the Enemy Dead
Some Trump surrogates have seemingly 
gone way too far in advocating for the Trump campaign. One such surrogate, Wayne Allyn Root, even went as far as talking about Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin dying in a car crash during a Trump rally in Las Vegas. This was a clear use of persuasive communication, as he was trying to elicit a very specific response within the audience, which was clearly aimed at what he believed they wanted to hear. While it might be too late in the game for Trump to make such radical statements without losing swing states, he has done a great job of delegating the task of being rash to his surrogates. By doing so, he ensures that if it were to backfire, he could easily disassociate himself from the surrogate and claim Root was a surrogate gone rogue. I believe that this appeal will work to get the people who already support Trump heated and as a result, will push them to the polls on Election Day.
I agree that it is important for his campaign to include a forward thinking movement, however I don’t feel that online bullying is a big enough pull. I think it is important and should be addressed, but I feel like overall, there could have been a stronger focus picked for Melania in order to draw a bigger pull from the election.
As for Trump, I think he has already said so many radical things that people expect it from him at this point. Yes, he is using his surrogates to say outlandish comments like Hillary should be put in the firing lane. However, Trump has also made his fair share of radical comments and I don’t think that he has necessarily used his surrogates as scapegoats in order to save his own skin. He has done plenty in this election to tarnish his reputation as well as his surrogate speakers.