Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to cast his ballots for the Florida primary in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., August 14, 2024.
Marco Bello | Reuters
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is expected to deliver a speech on Wednesday detailing a bleak outlook for the U.S. economy, blaming the administration of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It’s basically a speech about what’s happening to our economy. Under this group of people, it’s gotten very bad with inflation, with the economy itself, and a lot of other things,” Trump told reporters ahead of a speech scheduled for 4 p.m. ET in Asheville, North Carolina.
Trump’s speech comes as he seeks to regroup his campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew from his reelection bid and endorsed Harris in late July.
Harris’s surge in the polls has erased Trump’s solid lead over Biden, but Trump still maintains a long-standing lead over the Democrat when voters choose which candidate would be best for the economy.
The Labor Department reported this morning that the annual inflation rate slowed to 2.9% year-on-year as of July, the lowest level since 2021.
Trump’s political fortunes have benefited greatly from the high inflation and high interest rates that have weighed on consumers over the past three years. Polls show that a majority of voters believe the U.S. economy is in recession and blame Biden for it.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks next to Vice President Kamala Harris as he makes a statement a day after Republican challenger Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally. He delivers brief remarks at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 14, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
So far, Trump has been successful in attacking Biden and Harris on inflation during the campaign, but new economic data threatens to undermine his attacks.
Since Harris replaced Biden, North Carolina has reemerged as a key Democratic battleground. Trump won the Tar Heel state in both 2016 and 2020, but his lead in the polls has waned in recent years.
Harris, buoyed by renewed enthusiasm and hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, is scheduled to arrive in the state on Friday to deliver a speech on the economy.
But it’s unclear whether Trump will stick to the script at Wednesday’s event, where he has strayed significantly from the topic in his recent two-hour-plus interview with X. Tesla CEO Elon Musk during an hour-long press conference at his resort home, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.
Trump’s response to his new opponent was partly to question her racial identity and public affiliation, to call her names and to denigrate her intelligence.
Some of Trump’s allies have warned him to narrow his attacks to substantive policy differences or risk losing the attention of a convincing electorate.
