Former President Donald Trump on Saturday veered from his economic-focused message and repeatedly defended himself with illogical remarks and personal attacks, including multiple declarations that he was better looking than others. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump moved back and forth to emphasize his point. Economic policy And he held a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania, where he made derogatory remarks and made impressions about President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The former president appeared to have a hard time adjusting to his new opponent after the Democrats switched candidates. Last week, he went on the campaign trail, repeatedly deviating from his stated policies and making insulting remarks.
President Trump spent more time than usual sticking to the script during his Saturday rally, but he frequently diverged from his ideas from the start.
At the beginning of his speech, attacking Democratic inflation, he asked his supporters, “Would you mind if I stepped away from the teleprompter for a second? Joe Biden hates her.”
Trump’s rally was held in a key battleground state near Mr Biden’s hometown where conservative white working-class voters hope the Republican will boost his chances of reclaiming the White House.
His remarks on Saturday came as Democrats prepare for their four-day national convention starting Monday in Chicago, where they will welcome Harris as the nominee. She is the one to replace Mr. Biden. With less than four months until the November election, Democrats and their coalition partners are rejuvenated and present Trump with a new challenge.
Trump slammed Harris on Saturday over the economy, linking her to the Biden administration’s inflation problem and likening her recent proposals for price hikes to the actions of communist countries. Trump said a federal ban on raising food prices would lead to food shortages, rationing and hunger, and on Saturday asked why she and Mr. Biden did not work to address the price problem when they took office in 2021.
“Kamala’s first day was three and a half years ago. So why didn’t they do it then? So today is day 1,305,” Trump said.
President Trump said he would sign an executive order on his first day in office to address high prices. He said he would “direct every Cabinet secretary and agency head to use every authority we have to bring prices down, but we’re going to bring prices down the capitalist way, not the communist way.”
But he muttered in his remarks, saying: The Chaotic Withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 Even imitating Macron’s French accent, he took issue with the way his freewheeling style was typically portrayed in news articles.
“They’ll say he talks nonsense. I don’t talk nonsense. I’m a really smart guy. I don’t talk nonsense.”
Trump attacked Harris’s smile, saying she “doesn’t have a very good speaking voice” and mocking the names of CNN anchors who moderated Mr Biden’s debate in June.
He began to reflect on Harris’ recent appearance on the cover of Time magazine, but then suddenly remarked that the photo resembled classic Hollywood icons Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, and took issue with a Wall Street Journal columnist’s comments about Harris’ beauty earlier this month.
“I’m much better looking than her,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “I’m better looking than Kamala.”
He predicted a Harris victory would be a financial disaster for the country, especially Pennsylvania, and noted her past opposition to fracking, a process for extracting oil and gas.
“Your state is going to be ruined anyway. She’s totally against fracking,” Trump said.
In 2016 and 2020, Trump crushed Democratic opponents in the county that includes blue-collar Wilkes-Barre. The Rust Belt region, home to Mr. Biden’s hometown of Scranton, offers Trump hope and helps highlight the Democratic Party’s vulnerability after the president ended his bid for reelection and Harris began campaigning.
her campaign tried to soften her position She has said she would not ban fracking, a position she maintained when she was seeking the 2020 presidential nomination.
Some Pennsylvania Democrats acknowledge the challenges, but say the economy is what most residents are concerned about.
On Sunday, Harris plans a bus tour from Pittsburgh, stopping in the small town of Rochester to the north. Trump is scheduled to visit a nuclear fuel canister manufacturing plant in York on Monday. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is expected to be in Philadelphia that day.
Trump’s Saturday rally was the fifth at the stadium in Wilkes-Barre, the largest city in Luzerne County, where he has won the last two elections. Mr. Biden beat Mr. Trump in neighboring Lackawanna County, where Democrats have long touted their working-class roots in Scranton.
Some of Mr. Biden’s most loyal supporters in this former industrial city of 76,000 are angry at what they see as party leaders pressuring the president to step down.
Diane Manley, 63, said she called dozens of lawmakers to vouch for Mr. Biden. Manley eventually accepted Mr. Biden’s decision and is now a strong supporter of Harris.
“I can’t deny the excitement about this ticket right now. I was really into it,” Munley said. “It just didn’t occur to Joe, and I was so connected to him at the time that I didn’t notice.”
Robert A. Bridy, 64, a laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, showed his support for Trump at the rally Saturday. He said the race in the state seemed close, and that although unions and close friends were trying to persuade him to vote for Harris and other Democrats, he had voted for Trump since 2016.
Bridy called Trump “a working-class guy like us.” Trump is a billionaire who made his fortune in real estate.
“He’s a fighter,” said Bridy. “I want to see closed borders. He doesn’t play around. He acts and does things the right way.”
