Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he believed he had “the right to personally attack his Democratic rival.” He was “very angry” at Vice President Kamala Harris and questioned her intelligence.
During a press conference, Trump was asked whether his campaign needs more discipline as he faces a Democratic slate that has gained recent momentum since Harris replaced President Joe Biden because the party’s presidential nominee.
“As far as the personal attacks go, I’m very angry at her for what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her for using the justice system as a weapon against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I have the right to personal attacks,” Trump said at his golf club in New Jersey, where he had invited reporters in charge Harris for Biden’s unpopular economic record.
“I don’t have much respect for her intelligence and I think she will be a terrible president,” he added.
Trump also criticized Democrats for calling him and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, “weird.” Harris is “weird in her politics,” he said.
Trump stuck to his succinct economic message for greater than half an hour, reading from a folder in front of him during a press conference at his golf club in New Jersey. He later referred to familiar stories that he likes to inform at his rallies. A day earlier, in a rambling speech that his campaign team had announced as a significant political address, he had struggled to supply an enduring justification for his economic policy.
“Kamala Harris is a radical liberal from California who has ruined the economy, destroyed the border and, frankly, ruined the world,” Trump told reporters.
Trump stood next to popular grocery items, including quick coffee, sugary breakfast cereals and pastries laid out on tables, as he highlighted the associated fee of every part from groceries to automobile insurance to housing. Posters showed the rise in prices of basic food items.
Once, when Trump was talking concerning the 2020 election, which he lost, he noticed a box of cereal.
“I haven’t seen Cheerios in a long time,” Trump said. “I’m going to take them to my cottage.”
As he turned to return inside, Trump didn’t answer shouted questions on when he had last bought groceries.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced a day earlier that inflation hit its lowest level in greater than three years in July, the most recent sign that the worst price increase in 4 a long time is easing.
But consumers are still feeling the results of upper prices – and Trump’s campaign team is counting on voter motivation this fall.
A recent survey A study by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Americans usually tend to trust Trump than Harris on economic and immigration issues – issues he has placed at the middle of his arguments for a return to the White House.
Harris plans to offer her own economic policy speech in North Carolina on Friday, through which she guarantees to push for a federal ban on price gouging within the food sector.
Trump predicted he would beat Harris by a bigger margin than he beat Biden “once she’s exposed.”
“People don’t know who she is,” Trump said.
A small group of Trump supporters watched his press conference from the periphery, occasionally cheering him on. But with no crowd of hundreds to regale with crude attacks on his enemies, Trump tended to keep on with his prepared remarks.
Hours before the press conference, Trump’s campaign officials announced that they’d be expanding his staff and officially adding plenty of former aides and out of doors advisers to the team. Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz and Tim Murtaugh will advise the campaign’s leadership.
Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager during his 2016 campaign. Budowich and Pfeiffer move from MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC. Bruesewitz produces pro-Trump content for a big social media following. And Murtaugh was the communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
The summer was the time of upheaval in Trump’s previous two campaigns. This yr’s change comes weeks after the campaign itself was transformed by Biden’s decision to finish his reelection campaign and endorse Harris.
Trump expressed his confidence in his top advisers on Thursday, writing on his social media platform that his management team, led by Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, was “THE BEST.”
Trump spoke to the press while expressing his criticism of Harris for not holding a press conference or making herself available for interviews since Biden made way for her.
“I think I’m running a very quiet campaign,” Trump said after being asked about criticism from Republicans who want him to focus less on personal attacks.
“Some of you will say, ‘He ranted and raved,'” Trump told reporters. “I’m a very calm person, believe it or not.”
