Get ready for Donald Trump’s blue state spectacle.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, Trump is planning rallies in heavily Democratic states that he has virtually no chance of winning. It’s an unorthodox campaign strategy that aides say aims to focus on areas where Democrats’ policies have failed, but will also keep him out of the small handful of swing states that will almost certainly swing the election will determine.

The former president has events scheduled in Colorado, California, Illinois and New York over the next month. President Joe Biden won these states by an average of 20 points in 2020, with his Colorado victory having the narrowest margin at 13 points. Colorado is the only such state to have voted for a Republican candidate for president this millennium, supporting George W. Bush in 2004.

While each event will take place in slightly different locations, the most notable will take place later this month at Madison Square Garden, a site where Trump has long said he wants to hold a political rally.

“By choosing high-impact environments, 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 said of the strategy behind late-election-cycle events in Democratic 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.”

“President Trump ends the campaign by highlighting the problems facing the country due to the failed leadership of Harris and Biden and laying out his solutions to solve the problems they created,” the adviser added.

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The decision to deviate from a traditional campaign guide comes at a time when the race will almost certainly be decided in places like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan, places ranked in most public polls within within the margin of error and was considered winnable by both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This doesn’t appear to be a campaign that is putting its candidate in critical voter or swing vote positions — it appears more like a candidate who wants his campaign to hold rallies for optics and sentiment,” said longtime Republican activist Matthew Bartlett.

He called Trump the “most unorthodox candidate in modern history,” meaning the off-script strategy may have some merit.

“In 2016, Trump realigned the party to be more rural and working-class. Now, in 2024, he is trying to expand his voter base along certain cultural lines that could erode traditional Democratic voting blocs,” Bartlett said.

A second Trump adviser said that Trump has large online viewership wherever he holds rallies, including in swing states, and that there is confidence within the campaign in its chances, which she said poses some risk.

“We are certainly optimistic about our prospects broadly,” the adviser said.

Some Trump supporters argued that a trip to areas of the country not traditionally visited by Republican presidential candidates could have a sort of catch-up effect and help give a boost to Republicans who didn’t vote in difficult elections. There are no closely contested Senate races in any of the states where Trump is visiting, but there are a handful of closely contested House races a year from now, with that chamber’s majority likely to be decided by razor-thin margins.

In California, House District 40 is represented by Republican Young Kim and House District 41 is represented by Republican Ken Calvert, both of which are in competitive races in the Los Angeles media market along with Coachella, where Trump will hold his rally.

In New York, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito won Nassau County’s 4th District in 2022, but it is a seat that leans Democratic and was won by Joe Biden in 2020 by 15 points.

“The fact that we can win electoral votes with President Trump’s aggressive travel plan is a testament to the well-orchestrated and effective campaign plan focused on uniting all Americans,” said Ed McMullen, a Trump donor who served during the Trump administration served as ambassador to Switzerland during the election campaign.

“It is a well-planned effort to win important seats,” he added.

Bartlett, the veteran GOP consultant, agreed.

“Some of these places could help influence House elections,” he said.

However, the strategy of venturing into clear blue areas of the country is met with resistance as a precaution.

Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez, a Democrat, issued a statement denigrating Trump after announcing he would hold a rally in the city.

“Trump’s attacks on immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community and the most vulnerable among us are inconsistent with our community’s values,” he said. “He has consistently expressed his disdain for the kind of diversity that is Coachella.”

Hernandez added that the city was “proud” to welcome Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., when he ran for president as a Democrat in 2020.

The stop in Aurora had long been promised by Trump after he spread debunked rumors earlier this year about Venezuelan gangs overrunning the city, including taking over an apartment complex. Trump’s claims thrust Colorado’s third-largest city into the national spotlight and made it a key part of his anti-illegal immigration message, a central tenet of his campaign.

Trump’s claims were refuted by local police and Republican Mayor Mike Coffman, who called them “not accurate.”

Still, Trump’s stay in Aurora will undoubtedly put the city back in the national immigration debate.

“Aurora, Colorado has become a ‘war zone’ due to the influx of violent Venezuelan prison gang members,” said a statement from the Trump campaign announcing the event.

At the Chicago stop, both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will be at an event hosted by Bloomberg at the Economic Club of Chicago.

Meanwhile, holding a rally at Madison Square Garden in the predominantly Democratic Manhattan borough has long been on Trump’s wish list. He has discussed the idea of ​​a rally at the iconic venue before, including earlier this election cycle.

For the native New Yorker, it is definitely his home, even if not politically.

A person familiar with the planning said the campaign had been working on a garden rally since the primary season.

“Nothing is accidental for 27 days,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a GOP strategist who worked on businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign. “Could be a visual game – crowds. Or a psychological game – large crowds on the Democratic lawn.”

“Or maybe there is one there,” she added. “When I saw the rally in New York, I thought, ‘Is New Jersey in play?'”

CORRECTION (October 10, 2024, 9:45 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated the first name of the congressman from New York’s 4th Congressional District. He’s Anthony D’Esposito, not Mike.