LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — Donald Trump is officially the face of the Republican party after accepting the party's nomination in the race for the White House.
"President Trump is clearly the leader of the republican party right now. There's no question about that," Benjamin Toll, a Political Science Professor at Wilkes University.
Toll says Trump's popularity is soaring among voters and republican leaders, including many who, just a few years ago, were some of his biggest critics.
"There's a lot of disunity in the democratic party and a lot of unity in the republican party," said Toll. "Which makes President Trump stronger today than he has been at any point, I would say, before the Covid pandemic."
Toll says the biggest reasons behind Trump's wave of support have been his surviving his recent assassination attempt, his appointment of JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate, and his new outlook on the campaign.
"Unified approach or for lack of a better way a more dignified approach than what a lot of his rallies have been. He wants to be less focused on division and more focused on the bigger picture of the country," said Toll.
But with more than three months to go until election day, Toll says a lot can change and that Trump needs to stay focused if he wants to completely derail a questionable Biden-Harris team.
"If he returns back to sort of his normal self in a week or two, then I think those changes that we may be you're seeing right now will not maintain for very long," added Toll.