Axelrod: Team Trump ran a smart campaign

Democratic strategist David Axelrod commended former President Trump's team early Wednesday, saying it ran a "rational, well-conceived" campaign for an "often irrational" candidate.

"I think they ran, honestly, strategically, his campaign — and I've said it many times — they ran a very smart campaign," he said in an interview on CNN. "It was an ultimately rational, well-conceived and well-executed campaign for an irrational, often irrational candidate."

"They overcame him to sell his message — or the message that they thought he should be selling — to the country," Axelrod, a contributor to the outlet, added.

His comments come after The Hill/Decision Desk HQ called the White House race for the former president. That call made after Trump was projected to win Pennsylvania and Alaska, bringing him to exactly 270 electoral votes.

Earlier this year, Axelrod suggested that Trump had a leg up on Vice President Harris, but he had also been hesitant to make any predictions about the election, saying less than three weeks out from Election Day that he would be a "fool" to make predictions when the polling margins he's seen were "way too close to call."

In July, as President Biden dropped his reelection bid and Harris was on track to becoming the Democratic nominee, the strategist had said during an interview that he believed Trump was still a “pretty substantial favorite” in November’s election, even as excitement was building among Democrats about the vice president's campaign.

In August, Axelrod had warned the party against being too euphoric over Harris's slight national lead over Trump, suggesting the Republican “may well” win if the election was held at that time.

Earlier this week, though, the CNN contributor had argued that the former president was not “closing well” as he and Harris addressed voters in the seven key swing states in the final days of their campaigns.

“He is actually abetting her message in the final week — that’s going to make Republicans uncomfortable," Axelrod said at the time. "I’m sure they would love him to stay tethered to that prompter a bit more and deliver the message that they think will help him win this election. But he’s not closing well. She’s closing in a much more disciplined way."