Donald Trump has again sought to deliver a campaign message focused on the economy, but the Republican repeatedly swerved into non-sequiturs and personal attacks, including twice declaring he was better looking than Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
The former president switched back and forth between hitting his points on economic policy and delivering insults and impressions of President Joe Biden and French leader Emmanuel Macron as he held a rally in north-eastern Pennsylvania.
As he attacked Democrats for inflation, he asked his crowd of supporters: “You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you? Joe Biden hates her.”
Mr Trump’s rally was in an area of the pivotal battleground state where he hopes conservative, white working-class voters near Mr Biden’s home town will boost the Republican’s chances of winning back the White House.
His remarks on Saturday came as Democrats prepare for their four-day national convention that begins on Monday in Chicago and will mark the party’s welcoming of Mr Harris as their nominee.
Her replacement of Mr Biden with less than four months before the November election reinvigorated Democrats and has presented a new challenge for Mr Trump.
He criticised Ms Harris’s laugh and said she was “not a very good wordsmith”, and mocked the names of the CNN anchors who moderated the debate he had with Mr Biden in June.
He also condemned Ms Harris on the economy, associating her with the Biden administration’s inflation woes and likening her latest proposal against price gouging to measures in communist nations.
Mr Trump has said a federal ban on price gouging for groceries would lead to food shortages, rationing and hunger, and on Saturday asked why she had not worked to solve prices when she and Mr Biden were sworn into office in 2021.
“Day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. So why didn’t she do it then? So this is day 1,305,” Mr Trump said.
His remarks also ranged from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 to impressions of Mr Macron’s French accent, but he took issue with the way his free-wheeling style is typically portrayed in news reports.
“They will say ‘he’s rambling’. I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy. I don’t ramble.”
He predicted financial ruin for the country and Pennsylvania in particular if Ms Harris wins, citing her past opposition to fracking.
“Your state’s going to be ruined anyway. She’s totally anti-fracking,” Mr Trump said.
In 2016 and 2020, Mr Trump crushed his Democratic rivals in the county that is home to blue-collar Wilkes-Barre. The Rust Belt region, home to Mr Biden’s native Scranton, offers Mr Trump hope and helps him spotlight Democratic vulnerabilities after the president ended his re-election bid and Ms Harris launched her campaign.
Her campaign has tried to soften her stance on fracking, saying she would not ban it, even though that was her position when she was seeking the 2020 presidential nomination.
Some Democrats in Pennsylvania acknowledge the challenges but say the economy is what concerns most people in the area.
Pennsylvania lieutenant governor Austin Davis said in an interview that voters are “really fired up”, adding: “The energy has clearly shifted in a dramatic way toward Vice President Harris”. He argued that Mr Trump “just goes on rambling rants and just makes personal attacks on Harris”.
On Sunday, Ms Harris plans a bus tour starting in Pittsburgh, with a stop in Rochester, a small town to the north.
Mr Trump has scheduled a visit on Monday to a plant that manufactures nuclear fuel containers in York, and his running mate JD Vance is expected to be in Philadelphia that day.
