“Obviously you’d love to see the president hold his signature arena rallies, but a retail politics approach could end up being a blessing in disguise,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative student activists group Turning Point USA. “It will humanize him for millions of voters who either only ever see him on stage, in official White House settings, or otherwise just believe the news media’s caricature of him.”

It took Trump months to agree to trade in his raucous mega-rallies with thousands of adoring fans for more understated events. He initially started scheduling old-school Trump rallies in June, but was soon forced to scuttle those plans as the coronavirus resurged across the country. Now, Trump has finally settled on a mega rally-free campaign model he can live with for the next nine weeks. He’s expected to travel a couple times a week, with the number of trips increasing as Election Day draws closer.

His first stop after convention wraps up will be Manchester, N.H., where he will deliver remarks at an airport. “He’ll dominate the local media market in multiple stops a day,” said a Republican who speaks to the president.

Trump hopes to draw a contrast to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who has participated in only a few live campaign events outside his Wilmington, Del., home, since the pandemic struck. Trump employed a similar strategy in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton, who he tried to portray as weak and lacking stamina.

“The more the president is out, the more it puts pressure on Biden to do more,” said a Republican close to the campaign.

Biden’s team has focused on virtual events, a nod to the ongoing travel restrictions as the coronavirus continues to circulate in large numbers.

“I think Vice President Biden has an understanding of the gravity of the pandemic and the need to emphasize safety and model safety,” said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a doctor and Biden surrogate. “Certainly he is starting to do more … but again in an appropriate physically distanced way. This is all new campaigning for all of us.”

Trump’s team hopes the president’s travel may force Biden, known for his gaffes and lack of message discipline, to do more events where he could make a mistake. Last week, both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited Wisconsin, the official host of the Democratic National Convention before it was transformed into a virtual event.

“After not stepping foot in Wisconsin for 661 days, Joe Biden outwardly snubbed the Badger state once again and spent DNC week hiding in his Delaware basement,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Thea McDonald. “Meanwhile, President Trump and Vice President Pence are safely hosting in-person events in states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Arizona, allowing them to bring their message directly to the American people.”

It’s a balancing act for Trump. National and battleground state polls show him lagging behind Biden in large part because of his much maligned response to the coronavirus outbreak. He has tried to counteract some of the criticism by restoring regular briefings and sometimes wearing a mask while traveling. But Trump will be chided in the coming months if he appears to be flouting social-distancing rules during campaign stops.

The Trump campaign said all events headlined by Trump and Pence, who travels more frequently than the president, will adhere to local regulations. All attendees will be given masks, hand sanitizer and temperature checks, the campaign said.

Trump was slow to forego his rallies even as infection rates surged this summer. He has relied on them almost exclusively to campaign — holding more than 300 rallies during the 2016 campaign and nearly 100 more since he was elected — a departure from most candidates who engage in small stops at diners, bus tours and hefty policy speeches. Since he was sworn in as president, Trump’s rallies have morphed into multi-day events, complete with live music, food trucks and high-profile surrogates.

During the early part of his first campaign, Trump dabbled in retail politics — particularly in the early nominating states. But he eventually abandoned the more intimate events once he realized he could summon thousands to a venue with a tweet.

“He really is a person who draws energy from the crowd even more than most do,” said Peter Wehner, a speechwriter in the last three Republican administrations. “And so I think that's really going to be telling. It's going to make it really, really difficult. … He needs that kind of affirmation and if he's denied it, it means that he has to find other ways. He's so desperate for it that he's going to find other ways to try and get it. And it usually causes him to trip up.”

Trump’s last rally in June in Tulsa, Okla., drew a much smaller crowd than expected, perhaps in part because of coronavirus fears. Oklahoma later reported a record number of Covid-19 cases, and state health officials said the president’s appearance — combined with counter-protests — “likely contributed” to the surge.

Trump planned another rally for New Hampshire but it was abruptly scrapped. Campaign officials said it was due to an oncoming storm but Trump later acknowledged it was because of the pandemic.

“He understands — it’s not like the big crowds aren’t showing up, they can’t show up,” said Bryan Lanza, who worked on the 2016 campaign and remains close to the White House. “It’s not that there’s no interest — it’s because of Covid. They’re adapting to the environment.”

With just two months left until the November election, Trump can’t afford to wait for his rallies to start anew. He has already started testing out smaller events as part of his presidential duties, scheduling quick stops around the country that have centered on the economy, law enforcement and immigration. In Trumpian fashion, he sprinkled each stop with campaign-style attacks.

Last week, Trump visited five states. On Monday, he delivered economic speeches at airports in Minnesota and Wisconsin. “Now Biden wants to lock all Americans in their basements for months on end, which would inflict permanent irreversible harm on our nation's children, families health and economy,” he told the crowd in Oshkosh, Wisc.

On Tuesday, after receiving a briefing on storm recovery at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Iowa, Trump delivered remarks at an airport in Arizona. “Biden's plan is the most radical, extreme, reckless, dangerous and deadly immigration plan ever put forward by a major party candidate,” he said. “It must be defeated. And it will be defeated on November 3.”

On Thursday, he traveled to a building products factory in Old Forge, Pa., before making an unannounced stop at a pizzeria, greeting the waiting crowd and employees, saying he wanted to stop by “because they have great pizza.”

Campaign officials say they don’t expect Trump to do many retail stops — in part because of the difficulty in doing them with his large entourage. But he’s expected to do some. Lobbyist David Urban, a former senior Trump adviser who was pivotal in helping him win Pennsylvania in 2016, was the one who suggested Trump make the pizza shop stop last week, according to a person familiar with the visit.

After last Thursday’s trip was over, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien took to Twitter to mock Biden for traveling 6,504 miles since March while touting Trump’s 6,668 miles in just one week.

“They can continue to ignore people in large swaths of the country and the president will continue to show up,” said White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. “That's the best counter-programming."

Michael Kruse contributed to this report.