Help or hindrance? Biden takes a back seat as Trump goes all in on midterms

Raucous music will be played, bellicose speeches will be given and big lies will be told. Donald Trump will hold his 20th and 21st campaign rallies of the year in Nevada and Arizona this weekend, urging voters to support Republican candidates in the midterm elections.

Joe Biden will be relaxing at home in Delaware.

Biden is likely to hold rallies of his own as election day approaches but for now has focused on smaller, more intimate fundraising receptions in conference centres, back gardens or ritzy New York apartments with the help of alcohol and celebrities.

Underpinning both is the calculation that, although both Biden, who turns 80 next month, and 76-year-old Trump are the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties respectively, there are plenty of situations in which they might be seen as more of a liability than an asset.

The Axios website reported this week that Biden had flown less for domestic political purposes, and hosted fewer out-of-town fundraisers, than either Trump or former president Barack Obama in their corresponding midterm cycles.

Progressives on the left of the Democratic party also have misgivings about joint appearances with a president who campaigned as a moderate and, despite some significant legislative achievements, also has fallen short of some key objectives in their view.

Trump has inserted himself into the midterms whether Republican candidates and leaders like it or not. Last month the New York Times reported that the former president had invited himself to rally in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, forcing hopefuls Mehmet Oz and JD Vance to make the best of it.

Some candidates, such as Kari Lake and Tudor Dixon, running for governor of Arizona and Michigan respectively, have enthusiastically embraced the ex-president as a way of firing up turnout from the Republican base.

But other Republican candidates have adopted a more traditional approach: adopt extreme positions in the primary election, then pivot to moderation in the general so as not to scare away swing voters. For example, Don Bolduc, running for the Senate in New Hampshire, reversed his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump two days after winning a primary.

Biden is also quietly proving an effective fundraiser. As of 1 October, he had headlined 11 receptions to raise money directly for the Democratic National Committee at venues ranging from mansions in southern California to a yacht club in Portland, Oregon, and bringing in more than $19.6m. On Thursday night he was in New York for a reception for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The fundraisers have also featured celebrities such as the actor Robert De Niro and film-maker Ken Burns and enable Biden to cut loose from the formality of a scripted White House speech.