Donald Trump returned to his beauty pageant roots on Saturday to evaluate the physical attributes of his opponent Kamala Harris – but compared the Democratic candidate not to other women, but to himself.
It was the first time he had to compete with Harris in the beauty contest, and not surprisingly, he emerged as the winner. The reason for turning the presidential campaign into a beauty contest was her appearance on the cover of Time Magazine, an issue that has been troubling the Republican candidate since the incident earlier this week.
First he compared the drawing of Harris on the magazine cover with Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, then with himself.
This is the Time The cover angered Trump so much that he claimed it was modeled on Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor.
Time Magazine
This time he suggested that Time had tried unsuccessfully to photograph Harris and the magazine had no pictures of her to use. “Time magazine doesn’t have a picture of her,” he said. They have this incredible artist who draws her. And I said, “Is that Sophia Loren? Who could that be? Is that Elizabeth Taylor? Oh, they must be celebrating the great life and times of the stunningly beautiful Sophia Loren.”
“I look much better than her,” Trump said to laughter. “I’m a better looking person than Kamala.”
Earlier this week he had also compared the Contemporary picture of “our great First Lady Melania”.
He also complained that a “speechwriter for Ronald Reagan,” whose name he did not mention but who was most likely Wall Street journalist Columnist Peggy Noonan had said, “She has one great advantage, she is a very beautiful woman.” Commenting on Harris’s appearance, Noonan said, “You can’t take a bad picture of her. Her beauty and the social warmth that everyone who has known her over the years speaks of add up to one thing: charisma.” She also said she has significant political advantages and skills, but Trump did not mention that part of Noonan’s judgment.
Harris’ campaign did not respond directly to the question of whether she or Trump was more beautiful, but accused him of insults because he is losing. New polls on Saturday show him five percentage points behind in Arizona.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times/Reuters
“I say I’m much better looking than her,” he said. “I’ve never heard that before. You said her greatest asset was that she was a beautiful woman. Ha. I never thought of that.”
The comments, delivered at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, came after he addressed the crowd and asked, “Do you mind if I turn off the teleprompter for a second?” When cheers of approval rang out, he did so, ending his rehearsed remarks on his economic message by saying, “Joe Biden hates them.”
He then imitated, among other things, the accent of French President Emmanuel Macron and complained that reports of his hour-long speech had claimed that he had “rambled”.
The Harris campaign focused on empty seats and people leaving the rally early.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters
“They’ll say he’s rambling. I’m not rambling. I’m a really smart guy,” he said.
Trump also expressed confusion over the sudden turn in the presidential race that has upended his campaign and left him falling in the polls both nationally and in most swing states. The latest news from Saturday, from the New York Times and Siena College give Harris a five-point lead in Arizona. Since she already has a steady lead in Pennsylvania, where Trump spoke, that would give her an easy path to reaching 270 votes in the Electoral College.
“What happened to Biden? I ran against Biden and now I’m running against somebody else,” Trump said of the switch from president to vice president as the Democratic candidate. “I said, ‘Who am I running against? Harris? I said, ‘Who the hell is Harris?'”
The Harris campaign highlighted that people left Trump’s campaign during his speech, and spokesman Joseph Costello told The Hill“Donald Trump can’t sell his dangerous Project 2025, which would raise taxes on working families by $3,900, repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away our freedoms. So he’s resorting to lies, name-calling and confused tirades.”
