Low profile: Donald Trump hunkers down as Joe Biden fights off calls to exit race

WASHINGTON - Former President Donald Trump and his campaign aides are following one of the oldest rules in politics: Don't get in the way of your opponent when he or she is struggling.

As President Joe Biden and his aides try to quell Democratic anxiety over last week's debate performance, Trump and his team are being uncharacteristically low key - although they are also making clear they don't expect the Democrats to replace Biden as the nominee.

"If you listen to the professionals that do this stuff, they say it's very hard for anybody else to come into the race," Trump said in an interview Monday on Richmond's Morning News with John Reid.

That said, Trump and aides also said they will be be prepared if the Democrats do wind up with another candidate, either Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else.

Biden, his White House and 2024 campaign all continue to insist there will be no change atop the Democratic ticket in 2024, even as the incumbent president starts losing support from elected lawmakers and other stalwarts.

"I'm gonna show up and, you know, I'm gonna campaign, whether it's him (Biden) or somebody else," Trump said on the Richmond radio program.

As Biden slogs through the post-debate tempest, the Trump campaign has no public events on its schedule for the week.

The former president and his aides have been less loquacious that normal, though they have social media and e-mail statements to promote improved poll numbers since the debate. Senior adviser Jason Miller, for example, live blogged Tuesday’s White House news conference.

Biden' campaign, while trying to assuage critical Democrats, also has sought to keep the focus on Trump and his record. On Tuesday, the president slammed Trump over his climate change skepticism during an event on the federal government's response to extreme weather. That came less than a day after Biden spoke from the White House about the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Trump's favor that granted presidents absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.

"Trump already tried to overturn one election, and Nevadans need to come together to defeat him and protect democracy," Maddy Pawlak, communications director for Biden's Nevada campaign, said on Tuesday in a statement that noted how a senior adviser to the Trump campaign in her 2024 battleground state was part of an multi-state effort to overturn Biden's victory in 2020.

While not doing much publicly, Trump and various advisers are holding meetings about their imminent vice presidential selection and the Republican convention in Milwaukee, which runs from July 15-18.

The former president's private schedule has also changed because of a delay in his sentencing for his conviction in the New York hush money trial. Sentencing had been scheduled for July 11 - a week from Thursday - but has been pushed back until September in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump has also continued to comment on his Truth Social account, including the usual attacks on Biden, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and other opponents.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump and his aides stay quiet as Biden fends off calls to step aside