The Biden campaign, supposedly leading in the polls, must take scant satisfaction out of it because all they can see in their rear-view mirror is the looming presence Donald Trump closing in.

Even polls run by Democrat media lapdogs are admitting now— perhaps not wanting to look as foolish as they did in 2016— that President Trump has halved his distance from Biden over the last month and is perfectly positioned going into the fall as the hunter, not the hunted.

The Trump campaign knows it is in much better shape than it was in 2016 when it won a solid victory over Hillary Clinton. And this is without the certain bump Trump will get from the debates. Though the Trump campaign is doing all it can to heighten the expectation of a tough debate opponent to make the president’s likely victory look harder than it may be.

While it is true Biden did get a bump in the polls in May and June, he has since receded. At his apogee, Biden was leading Trump by an average of 11 points. But recent polls have shown him leading by a little more than six points. That’s almost within the margin of error for a tied race. Several political strategists believe President Trump’s campaign has righted itself and will close the gap leading up to Election Day.

One such strategist spoke out Sunday. “You know the old quote from Margret Thatcher: ‘First you win the argument, then you win the vote’? Well, right now I think Donald Trump is winning the argument with 2/3 of the people I’m talking to. I think, from a perspective of the people who would and who could determine the outcome of the election, that the energy is still with Donald Trump,” said Rich Thau of the American Enterprise Institute. The AEI is well placed in D.C. to hear info from both sides of the aisle. So that is just not anecdotal evidence, it is solid intel.

Looking to gain on Biden even further, the Trump campaign has sent out surrogates nationwide to bolster the president’s message and slam Biden. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has hit the campaign trail against presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden in recent weeks.

“I think it’s the price they’re going to make him pay. They’re going to bring very radical people, people who promote having no police force. I think it’s crazy, it’s insane. I hope it’s enough that people will say they want some stability in this country,” said Senator Rand Paul, when asked at a Trump campaign event about the hard-left’s power in a potential Biden administration. These Trump campaign supporters will only enhance the president’s message now and in the fall.

The president’s position thus in early August is analogous with not only his own poll numbers in 2016, but of others like Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George Bush in 1988, both of whom went on to win their elections. Joe Biden knows this and can very likely feel the whole thing slipping away.