Over the course of many years, Americans have gotten to know Donald Trump. By and large, they’re not impressed: The latest ABC News/Ipsos poll found only a third of U.S. voters had a favorable opinion of the former president.

In theory, the Republican’s 2024 campaign team could invest heavily in advertising intended to make the GOP nominee more popular, but in practice, those involved in the process realize that it’s far too late for that. As a Washington Post report summarized on Labor Day, “With little chance of improving Trump’s standing, Trump’s advisers see the only option as damaging [Vice President Kamala Harris’ standing].”

As campaign strategies go, this one isn’t complicated: If the 2024 race comes down to whether the electorate likes the former president or not, he’ll lose. Left with few options, Team Trump believes it has no choice but to try to tear down the Democratic nominee.

But while the plan seems straightforward, the execution of the plan is off to a mendacious start.

The problem isn’t that Trump is reluctant to attack Harris. On the contrary, he seems desperate to do so. Rather, the problem is that the Republican candidate hasn’t been able to come up with criticisms rooted in reality.

Team Trump recently released a campaign ad, for example, that said Harris “literally unleashed the IRS to harass workers who receive tips.” That never happened. Team Trump then released another ad with several claims related to the vice president and the U.S./Mexico border, none of which is accurate.

The Republican nominee has told voters that Harris is a “communist.” He’s said Harris “killed“ American troops. He’s insisted that the Democratic nominee is trying to ban gas stoves. Each of these lines of attack are utterly bonkers.

But Trump has been especially interested of late in the work the vice president did while she was still a student. At a conservative event late last week, the GOP candidate declared:

“She also said, ‘I worked at McDonald’s.’ Turned out she didn’t work at McDonald’s. Anybody see that? After an exhaustive study that took about 20 minutes, they found out she never worked there. So, you know, a lot of fake stuff going on.”

His audience apparently found this amusing, as a video clip showed.

A day later, he published an item to his social media platform that read, “Kamala said she worked at McDonalds — She never did. Lie!” Two days later, Trump once again returned to the subject, insisting that Harris “never worked at McDonalds.”

Harris really did work at McDonald’s. She didn’t include this on her resume when she sought a job at the Alameda County district attorney’s office in 1987 because it didn’t seem especially relevant to the position, but it doesn’t change the fact that she made French fries and worked a register, just like plenty of other young people nationwide.

Or put another way, Trump lied about Harris lying.

But stepping back, the broader circumstances should probably give Republicans pause. The Democratic nominee has been involved in public service for decades, working as a prosecutor, a state attorney general, a U.S. senator, and a vice president. If the GOP candidate and his team are eager to scrutinize her record, there should be plenty of accurate things to choose from.

So why is it that Trump has relied so heavily on made-up nonsense? If Harris is as bad as her partisan critics claim, why can’t Trump simply tell the truth?