Why Trump is heading to the “Belly of the Beast”: The strategy behind his blue state is ending

With three and a half weeks until Election Day, former President Trump is hosting a rally in Southern California on Saturday.

His campaign also announced this week that the Republican presidential nominee will hold a rally at New York's Madison Square Garden later this month.

On Friday, Trump stopped in Colorado and on Tuesday he is scheduled to parachute into Illinois.

It has been 40 years since a Republican won New York in a presidential election, 36 years since California and Illinois lost red majorities in a White House race, and two decades since Republicans captured Colorado.

THE CLOSER: FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA TRACKS HARRIS IN THE FINAL STREG

Former President Trump speaks at a rally in Uniondale, New York, on September 18. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

With time an extremely precious commodity for the presidential campaign in the final stretch of a White House showdown in a margin of error race with Vice President Kamala Harris, many are wondering why Trump is stalling in the blue states where his chances of winning are stacked extremely thin to non-existent.

“We just rented Madison Square Garden. We're going to do a play. We're going to do a play for New York. This hasn't been done for a long time. “That hasn't been done in many decades.” Trump said this week at a rally in Pennsylvania, hours after his campaign announced the date in New York City.

Check out the latest FOX NEWS ELECTION 2024 POLL

“We play for New Jersey. We play for Virginia,” Trump continued, adding that he also plans to run in Minnesota and New Mexico.

Despite the former president's bravado to expand the electoral map, New York, New Jersey, California and Colorado are rated solidly Democratic in the latest Fox News Power Rankings in the 2024 presidential election, while Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia are rated likely blue .

Fox News Power Rankings (Fox News)

Trump will lead a rally on Saturday in Coachella, a city in California's Riverside County southeast of Palm Springs that is best known nationally for a music festival held nearby each April.

“President Trump's visit to Coachella will highlight Harris' poor record and show that he has the right solutions for every state and every American,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The stop in Coachella could also benefit Trump among Latino voters — who have trended toward the GOP in recent years — not just in southeastern California but, more importantly, in neighboring Arizona and Nevada, two of the seven crucial contested states States that will likely decide whether the former president or Harris wins the 2024 election.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS

Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27 will be his third major campaign rally in Democratic-dominated New York this year.

Last month he filled the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, just outside New York City. And he drew thousands at a rally in New York's Bronx in May.

He also held a large rally along the New Jersey shore in May.

Former President Trump gestures at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, May 11. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“By choosing effective settings, the media cannot look the other way and refuse to report on the problems and solutions that President Trump offers,” a senior Trump campaign adviser told Fox News when asked about the strategy, events in October in blue states. “We live in a nationalized media environment and the national media's attention to these large-scale, outside-the-norm environments increases the reach of his message across the country and penetrates every embattled state.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Longtime Republican strategist Jesse Hunt, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns, noted that these stops in blue states are less about geography and more about the message.

“Trump creates many unique and interesting contrasts that can then be broadcast to a mass audience in states that are important to him,” Hunt said. “You have to create compelling narratives and compelling contrasts. I think that’s part of what Trump is doing.”

Hunt argued that Trump is a pro at “creating these moments that permeate our fractured media environment” and that “voters in Georgia, voters in North Carolina, will certainly be consuming news about Trump's event at Madison Square Garden.”

Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally in the South Bronx in New York City on May 23. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Hunt pointed to veteran campaign strategists Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, who are running Trump's 2024 campaign, saying they are “a pretty smart team … and they're not going to waste his time.”

Veteran Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett agreed that “we’re at a point where everything is going to be nationalized.”

He argued that the Trump blue state events “will galvanize an entire news cycle. That will give his supporters something to talk about. And I think there’s an admiration for getting into the belly of the animal, getting into the opponent’s territory.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Bartlett added: “Of course there is a downside.”

“If this strategy proves ineffective in the final days, it could be similar to what Hillary Clinton did, who mismanaged her time in the final days of 2016 by not being in critical swing states, not in places where you can…” “You have to increase voter turnout,” he warned.

Get the latest updates on the 2024 election, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital Election Center.