Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania took on similar themes to an event the day before that he himself described as a ‘dark speech’.

Published On 30 Sep 202430 Sep 2024

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has escalated his personal attacks on his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, by repeating an insult that she was “mentally impaired” while also saying she should be “impeached and prosecuted”.

Trump’s rally on Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, took on similar themes as an event the day before that he described as a “dark speech”. He claimed in front of a cheering crowd on Sunday that Harris was responsible for an “invasion” at the United States-Mexico border and told them “she should be impeached and prosecuted for her actions”.

“Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” he added. “Sad. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There’s something wrong with Kamala. And I just don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something missing. And you know what, everybody knows it.”

With about a month until the election, Trump is intensifying his use of personal and offensive attacks, even as some Republicans say he would be better off sticking to the issues that concern voters.

Trump has long threatened legal action against his rivals, including President Joe Biden and his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.

Trump has many legal problems of his own. He was convicted in May of falsifying business records in a hush money case in New York, with sentencing scheduled for November 26. Two other cases are pending – a federal case for his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and a state case in Georgia for his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss there to Biden. Prosecutors are appealing against a federal judge’s dismissal of a case involving his handling of classified documents.


Trump argues federal and state prosecutors are targeting him for political reasons. There is no evidence to suggest that is true.

On Sunday, Trump acknowledged he might lose in November: “If she wins, it’s not going to be so pleasant for me, but I don’t care.”

Trump criticised for remarks on Harris

Trump has derided Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, as “stupid”, “weak”, “dumb as a rock” and “lazy”. His allies have pushed him publicly and privately to talk instead about the economy, immigration and other issues.

“I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country,” Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN’s State of the Union programme on Sunday when asked about Trump’s comments, describing Harris’s policies as “crazy liberal”.

When asked whether he approved of Trump’s personal attacks on Harris, Republican Tom Emmer sidestepped the question during an interview on ABC’s This Week.

“I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America,” said Emmer, who is helping Trump’s running mate JD Vance prepare for Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. “I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse as the administration that we’ve witnessed for the last four years.”

When pressed, Emmer said: “I think we should stick to the issues. The issues are – Donald Trump fixed it once – they broke it. He’s going to fix it again. Those are the issues.”

Harris has not commented on Trump’s recent attacks but has said when asked about other comments that it was the “same old show. The same tired playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan on how he would address the needs of the American people.”

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Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged not only to stop U.S. businesses from offshoring jobs, but also to take other countries’ jobs and factories in part through huge tariffs that economists say could actually raise domestic prices.Read More

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Read More

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Read More

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Read More

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks about the tax code and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Read More

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks on the tax code, and manufacturing at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Read More

By  ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, WILL WEISSERT and TOM KRISHERUpdated 2:03 AM GMT+6, September 25, 2024Share

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries’ jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.

“I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here,” Trump declared during a speech in Savannah, Georgia.

Trump added that, if elected, he’d put a 100% tariff on every car coming into the U.S. from Mexico and that the only way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.

His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.

German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.

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If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Trump proposes a ‘new American industrialism’ — without key specifics

Trump has sought to press presidential rival Kamala Harris on the economy and has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.

Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. His opponent, Vice President Harris, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.

“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”

And Trump suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”

Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.

Trump also suggested he use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.

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His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.

Gov. Kemp misses Trump’s Georgia return

The Republican presidential nominee unveiled his plan in Savannah, which has one of the busiest ports in the country for cargo shipped in containers. It was his first visit since his feud with Republican Brian Kemp, came to an end last month with the popular Georgia governor finally endorsing Trump.

But Kemp skipped Trump’s rally and instead was campaigning Tuesday in Pennsylvania with Republican Senate candidate David McCormick.

Some Republicans have said they fear Georgia has gotten more politically competitive in the two months since Harris launched her presidential bid after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection efforts.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones assailed Harris for calling Trump a threat to democracy. Jones served as a fake elector and falsely attested that Trump won the 2020 election he actually lost to Biden. A special prosecutor, however, declined to move forward with criminal charges against Jones in the matter.

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Heather Mathis, 43, came to Tuesday’s event with her 11-year-old daughter and said Kemp had done “a fine job.” She said she didn’t think any problems between the governor and Trump will harm the former president’s Georgia chances.

“Many people have personality differences. It doesn’t make any of them bad,” Mathis said. “Maybe they just don’t get along, and that’s OK.”

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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris walks over to speak to members of the media upon her arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke/Pool)Read More

By  MEG KINNARDUpdated 12:32 AM GMT+6, September 24, 2024Share

Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he would be the sole featured speaker at this year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, typically a good-humored and bipartisan political event that Vice President Kamala Harris said she is skipping in favor of battleground state campaigning.

The former president and current Republican presidential nominee confirmed in a Truth Social post on Monday that he would speak at the Oct. 17 dinner, calling it “sad, but not surprising” that Harris had opted not to attend.

The gala benefiting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs. But on Saturday, Harris’ campaign said the Democratic nominee would not go to the event, breaking with presidential tradition so she could campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.

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Harris’ team wants her to spend as much time as possible in the battleground states that will decide the election rather than in heavily Democratic New York, a campaign official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign plans and confirming a decision first reported by CNN. Her team told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she’s elected, the official said.

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, “The Democrats Abandon Catholics.” In his Truth Social post, Trump said Harris “certainly hasn’t been very nice” to Catholics, saying that Catholic voters who support her “should have their head examined.”

A Harris campaign official said Catholics for Harris-Walz is working to register people to vote and get involved in outreach across the country. Trump’s post stems in part from 2018 questions that then-Sen. Harris posed to a federal judicial nominee about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic fraternal organization. Harris asked the nominee if he agreed with the anti-abortion views of the group’s leader, views that broadly align with the church’s stance.

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The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat and the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party. He was handily defeated by Herbert Hoover in 1928. The dinner raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally shown that those vying to lead the nation can get along, or pretend to, for one night.

It’s become a tradition for presidential candidates ever since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

Trump and Joe Biden, who is Catholic, both spoke at the fundraiser in 2020 when it was moved online because of COVID-19. Amid the pandemic and economic woes, there was no joking, and both candidates instead used their speeches to appeal to Catholic voters.

Both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton attended in 2016. Trump was booed after calling Clinton corrupt and claiming she hated Catholics.

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