"Republican operatives concede that the focus on Walz, the former running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, is easy political fodder after an election cycle spent portraying him as an inept and radical governor. And in an election season in which Walz is seeking a rare third term in office, the attacks could prove fruitful in a blue state where Republicans are hoping to make inroads. Still, Republicans believe that “even Democrats” don't want Walz as a candidate in future general elections, and that Democratic politicians such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), a possible 2028 contender for president, or New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an avowed socialist, will prove the most useful in this and future cycles. “Let’s be honest. This is a guy who made Kamala Harris seem like an expert debater,” said one out-of-government adviser to the president, a veteran of all three of his presidential campaigns. “We’ll have our fun, but I’m not sure that even an expert brander like President Trump can just wish this one into reality.” A second Trump veteran, who previously worked in the White House but has since grown frustrated with the president’s performance in office, said Trump’s focus on Walz and “the past” will eventually wear on voters’ nerves, considering Trump's declining approval ratings. “America elected President Trump in 2024 to save us from the economic disaster that a Harris-Walz administration would inflict,” the former Trump staffer explained. “But that was over a year ago, and we’re more or less in the same place. We’re still dealing with crazy inflation, and all the economic growth we’ve seen this year is propped up by just a handful of tech companies, which the administration is heavily subsidizing by the way. He needs to actually deliver some real results and fix these problems, not just b**** and moan about how much worse things would’ve been if he hadn’t won.”"