Trump Campaign to Resume In-Person Campaigning: 'We can't take any days off'

Despite President Donald Trump's continued bout with COVID-19, his campaign is signaling that there is no time to pause with less than a month until Election Day.

After Wednesday's vice-presidential debate, the Trump campaign will deploy key surrogates, including members of the Trump family, to stump in crucial battleground states while Trump remains on lockdown in the White House.

The campaign is dubbing the final month-long stretch to Election Day "Operation: MAGA." It's expected to include an aggressive schedule of in-person events, despite concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has stricken Trump, as well as several of his associates, including campaign manager Bill Stepien.

The Operation: MAGA effort comes just days after the campaign briefly paused most official in-person activities when Trump was taken by helicopter to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday. It created a temporary upheaval as the campaign's top advisers considered ways to move forward, including through virtual events, before Trump, himself, pushed for in-person events to quickly resume.

Democratic rival Joe Biden, who traveled to key swing states while Trump remained in the hospital, spent much of the summer on lockdown in his Delaware home and avoided aggressive campaign travel as the pandemic took hold earlier this year.

The Trump campaign mocked Biden for his decision to lay low during that time, while the president continued to hold multiple large-scale rallies where people often went unmasked.

The president, still infected with the novel coronavirus, returned to the White House on Monday with a dramatic scene on the South Lawn, footage of which later made it into two slickly-produced videos he has circulated online. It's expected that some of the footage could make it into televised campaign ads, as Trump focuses on a message centered on his own coronavirus experience as being key to a recovery plan.

In the hours since his release from Walter Reed, Trump has been tweeting messages that he's eager to get back on the campaign trail, even though his doctor said in his most recent update that the president likely won't be "out of the woods" until at least Monday.

"Don't let it dominate," Trump said in a video released late Monday night. "Don't let it take over your lives."

Trump's aggressive treatment regimen has included an experimental antibody drug cocktail, multiple rounds of anti-viral Remdesivr, and steroids.

Vice President Mike Pence was Salt Lake City-bound as Trump announced plans to return to the White House after the short hospital stay on Monday.

Pence is scheduled to face U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee from California, on the debate stage Wednesday.

The debate will serve as the official kick-off leading into a slate of Trump campaign events, with the president itching to get back among his supporters himself.

"This is the FINAL STRETCH of the Election and we can't take any days off," Trump's campaign wrote in an email to supporters this week.

On Thursday alone, the campaign has events scheduled in Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona that will feature a slate of top-level advisers and surrogates including both of Trump's sons and Pence spread across the country.