WASHINGTON: In another confusing 90-minute Election campaign speech in which he stressed that he was not babbling, Donald Trump on Saturday claimed he was “better looking” than Kamala Harriswhich triggered another flood of memes and jokes that became the entertainment element of a that could determine America’s future.
It was one of many bizarre remarks at a Trump Rally in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where he survived an assassination attempt last month but where even his political allies say he is heating up his own campaign so much that he could lose the election. Senator Lindsey Graham and others are sounding the alarm, rushing to TV talk shows to warn that Trump, the “showman and provocateur,” will not win unless he focuses on policy issues.
But precise policy recommendations were in short supply from Trump. Rallies as he continues to denigrate his opponents in crude personal terms, disparage allies, praise dictators and demonize immigrants, all while painting a grim, dystopian future for America if he is not elected. At Saturday’s rally, Kamala Harris’s appearance and race again sparked Trump’s irritation as he blabbed about a Time magazine cover she was on, saying they made her look like Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor by using a sketch instead of a photograph.
While Trump’s supporters claim such statements are the entertainment part of his rallies, the digressions frustrate establishment Republicans – many of whom are also running in concurrent House and Senate elections. The former president barely has the bandwidth to introduce other GOP candidates at his rallies as he tries to entertain his MAGA flock with fabulous stories of meeting foreign leaders and insulting his opponent.
In addition to personal barbs, Trump’s political attacks on Harris now include describing her as “socialist He went on to make the bizarre claim that countries around the world are emptying their prisons and asylums to send criminals and the mentally ill to the United States, and spread arbitrary and false statistics about the crime rate.
“They want to destroy our country. After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to impose socialist price controls… What they are doing is a Communist “The takeover of our country,” Trump told his MAGA supporters, who continue to flock to his rallies and listen to hours of demagoguery.
Branding her a socialist/communist/Marxist seems to be the latest weapon in Trump’s MAGA playbook, although there is no sign that this line of attack is paying off. Younger college-educated Americans do not seem to have the same pathology toward socialism as older Americans who lived through the Cold War.
Trump also continued his attempts to delegitimize Harris’ Democratic candidacy when he attended her convention in Chicago on Monday, complaining about how Democratic operatives had switched out the party’s nominee after he spent $100 million because he thought Biden would be his opponent. “What happened to Biden? I ran against Biden and now I’m running against someone else… Who the hell is Harris?” Trump said.
Surveys continue to suggest that Trump is losing ground, especially in the seven swing states that will determine the outcome of the election. Women and young voters among the undecided tend to favor Harris. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, is among those warning that Trump is a Gender gap with his constant denigration of Harris and his harping on the past instead of focusing on the future and economic issues.
“It’s not a gender gap, it’s a chasm. We’ve never seen anything like it. Don’t insult your opponent because of how they look or how they talk. Women can’t stand that. They expect you to focus on the future and not anger about the past. That’s the exact opposite of what Trump is actually doing,” Luntz told CNN in an analysis of polls showing a rise in female support for Harris.
It was one of many bizarre remarks at a Trump Rally in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where he survived an assassination attempt last month but where even his political allies say he is heating up his own campaign so much that he could lose the election. Senator Lindsey Graham and others are sounding the alarm, rushing to TV talk shows to warn that Trump, the “showman and provocateur,” will not win unless he focuses on policy issues.
But precise policy recommendations were in short supply from Trump. Rallies as he continues to denigrate his opponents in crude personal terms, disparage allies, praise dictators and demonize immigrants, all while painting a grim, dystopian future for America if he is not elected. At Saturday’s rally, Kamala Harris’s appearance and race again sparked Trump’s irritation as he blabbed about a Time magazine cover she was on, saying they made her look like Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor by using a sketch instead of a photograph.
While Trump’s supporters claim such statements are the entertainment part of his rallies, the digressions frustrate establishment Republicans – many of whom are also running in concurrent House and Senate elections. The former president barely has the bandwidth to introduce other GOP candidates at his rallies as he tries to entertain his MAGA flock with fabulous stories of meeting foreign leaders and insulting his opponent.
In addition to personal barbs, Trump’s political attacks on Harris now include describing her as “socialist He went on to make the bizarre claim that countries around the world are emptying their prisons and asylums to send criminals and the mentally ill to the United States, and spread arbitrary and false statistics about the crime rate.
“They want to destroy our country. After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to impose socialist price controls… What they are doing is a Communist “The takeover of our country,” Trump told his MAGA supporters, who continue to flock to his rallies and listen to hours of demagoguery.
Branding her a socialist/communist/Marxist seems to be the latest weapon in Trump’s MAGA playbook, although there is no sign that this line of attack is paying off. Younger college-educated Americans do not seem to have the same pathology toward socialism as older Americans who lived through the Cold War.
Trump also continued his attempts to delegitimize Harris’ Democratic candidacy when he attended her convention in Chicago on Monday, complaining about how Democratic operatives had switched out the party’s nominee after he spent $100 million because he thought Biden would be his opponent. “What happened to Biden? I ran against Biden and now I’m running against someone else… Who the hell is Harris?” Trump said.
Surveys continue to suggest that Trump is losing ground, especially in the seven swing states that will determine the outcome of the election. Women and young voters among the undecided tend to favor Harris. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, is among those warning that Trump is a Gender gap with his constant denigration of Harris and his harping on the past instead of focusing on the future and economic issues.
“It’s not a gender gap, it’s a chasm. We’ve never seen anything like it. Don’t insult your opponent because of how they look or how they talk. Women can’t stand that. They expect you to focus on the future and not anger about the past. That’s the exact opposite of what Trump is actually doing,” Luntz told CNN in an analysis of polls showing a rise in female support for Harris.
