Trump insiders take delight in Harris's decision to pick progressives' 'wet dream' Tim Walz as her running mate and say the next phase of the campaign starts NOW

After two weeks of backs-to-the-wall defense, with their VP pick J.D. Vance in the firing line and acres of newsprint celebrating Joe Biden's decision to step aside, the Trump campaign couldn't believe its luck when Kamala Harris finally plumped for Tim Walz, a governor little known outside his home state of Minnesota.

Insiders say it gives them the chance to get back on offense after weathering a difficult two weeks.  

'Thank you,' was Donald Trump's two-word verdict on Truth Social.

Behind the scenes, his allies could not hide their jubilation that Harris picked a governor with a liberal voting record from a state that has been solidly Democratic since 1972.

They quickly went on the attack, chewing over his voting record and the way that Minnesota was rocked by Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. 

Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota will be her running mate. The decision cheered Trump allies who have been on the back foot 

Their fear had been that she would lock up the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania by plumping for its centrist governor, Josh Shapiro.

'Instead of picking the candidate with charisma and a moderate record, Kamala caved to the Hamas caucus and picked a charisma black hole with a long record of supporting extreme liberal policies and a history of being close to China,' said a source close to the Trump campaign, before making a comparison with Hillary Clinton's losing 2016 ticket.

'Walz is Tim Kaine all over again, he adds nothing to the ticket.'

The Trump campaign needed a fillip.

After making the running all year, building potentially decisive leads in several swing states, it suddenly found itself under fire.

Trump may have survived an assassination attempt and brought the party together at its convention in Milwaukee, but the good times ended when Biden finally announced his decision to step aside last month.

That decision did not usher in weeks of Democratic infighting as they had hoped. Instead Democrats united behind Vice President Harris, and turned its attention to Vance, the MAGA loyalist selected as Trump's running mate.

His busy history of fiery TV interviews and incendiary social media posts provided fodder for attack ads and negative headlines. 

Trump allies said they were shocked that Harris did not pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro

Trump himself responded with a two-word post on his Truth Social website

Meanwhile money poured into Harris from donors who had been reluctant to back Biden. Even the polls turned her way.

An average maintained by the FiveThirtyEight statistics site now puts her in the lead over Trump by 45.5 percent to 43.5 percent.

David Urban, a Trump confidant whose base is Pennsylvania, said the real race begins now and described it as 'political malpractice' for Harris not to pick Shapiro. 

'He was the best political athlete in this draft class,' said Urban, who has known the governor for years.

Rather than a running mate who could help win the most important state in this year's contest, he said she had picked 'the progressives' wet dream.' 

And she had provided the Trump campaign with perfect chance to draw a line under the two weeks of missed opportunities and turbulence since Biden stepped aside.

'Today ends marks the end of that period,' he said. 'Today begins reality for the now Harris-Walz ticket, the most progressive ticket in the United States since maybe Mondale-Ferraro.'

That pairing lost in a landslide to Reagan-Bush in 1984. 

Vance himself was back on offense Tuesday, showing a spring in his step after two weeks of defending his own record. 

'They make an interesting tag team because Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail,' he told reporters traveling with him on his plane, Trump Force Two.