Former President Trump was once again detained for hours Press Conference The speech on Thursday — his second this month — is one in which he is seeking to draw a clear distinction between his candidacy, policies and campaign and those of his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has avoided the media since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Trump has a Press Conference Thursday at his home in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president and Republican presidential nominee stood on a stage displaying grocery items and delivered remarks focusing on rising costs under the Biden-Harris administration.
“Harris just announced that tackling inflation will be a ‘day one priority’ for her,” Trump said Thursday. “But for Kamala, day one was three and a half years ago.”
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“Where was she and why didn’t she do this? Why didn’t she do this?”
Harris has been the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential candidate for the last 25 days and has not yet held any press conference or interview with the media.
Trump said Harris’ campaign was “hiding” him, in the same way he said the Biden campaign was “hiding” him.
“They’re hiding him the same way he is, because I believe he’s completely incompetent,” Trump said. “And I don’t think people will believe him when they hear him.”
Sources in Trump’s political sphere told Fox News that the former president’s top advisers are quietly trying to persuade him to stop insulting Harris and questioning the vice president’s racial identity, and instead focus on portraying her as ultra-liberal and highlighting her stances on the border, crime and inflation.
But during a press conference on Thursday, Trump was asked about “personal attacks” against Harris.
“I’m very angry at them because of what they’ve done to the country — because they’ve weaponized the justice system against me and other people. I’m very angry at them,” Trump said. “I feel I deserve personal attacks.”
Trump said: “I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence. And I think she would be a very, very bad president.”
He added, “I think it’s very important that we win. And whether the personal attacks are good or bad, I mean she certainly attacks me personally.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 03: Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump appears on stage with his Republican vice presidential running mate, US Senator JD Vance (R-OH) during a campaign rally at Georgia State University Convocation Center on August 03, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Polls currently show a close race between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, US Vice President Kamala Harris. (Joe Raedle / Staff)
Trump said Harris “actually called me weird … and she called J.D. and me weird. He’s not weird. He was a great student at Yale. He went to Ohio State, graduated top of his class in two years, and these are all different things.”
Trump pointed to Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying he is “a weird guy” and that Harris’s “policy is weird too.”
“Who wouldn’t want strong borders?” Trump said. “Who wouldn’t want lower taxes?”
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Trump continued, “You know, I’ve watched politicians campaign all my life and I’ve always been on the other side, the side that these guys are on and they always talk about, we’re going to cut taxes — this is the only campaign I’ve ever heard of where they’re saying, we’re going to raise your taxes.”
Trump insisted that voters “don’t know who he is.”
“She’s a radical left-wing socialist,” Trump said. “But beyond that, I mean, she’s way beyond socialism, which is going to destroy our country and when she finds out, I think you’ll see something.”
Trump defends his attacks against Harris.
He said, “I just want to win for the country. Some people say, oh, why don’t you be nice? But they are not nice to me.”
They want to put me in jail. You know, just so you can understand. You know, they tell me I should behave. They want to put me in jail. This has never happened before in the history of our country. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Trump was referring to his legal challenges — several cases have been dismissed or delayed.
As far as his campaign is concerned, Trump said he wishes he didn’t have to contest the election.
“If our country was run by Democrats and it was run beautifully, where we were actually productive and everything else, I would never do this,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t have done this if I thought I couldn’t win. I think I can win, I think I can win easily, once they’re exposed for what they are, which is, you know, radical left-wing lunatics. And that’s just the way they are.”
Trump said Harris was “going to ruin our country.”
“And I just hope that the people of our country, and I believe they are doing that, because I see it happening already,” Trump said. “But I hope that they are able to think for themselves, because if they think for themselves, if they look at the destruction that Kamala and this person are causing, this person came out of nowhere, he came out of nowhere, a state that I love, but a state that is doing so poorly where he’s the one who signed on to put tampons in the boys’ bathrooms…signed a bill that the boys’ bathrooms, all the boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota will have tampons in them and what’s happening?”
“What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with us as a country?” Trump said. “No, if we had somebody who was doing an extraordinary job, I would be thrilled.”
Trump said that even though he is campaigning and hoping to win in November, he wants the country to do “really well” in the final months of Biden’s term, though he added that it will “make it a little harder to win.”
“I hope the country does really well. Country comes first. I want our country to do great,” Trump said. “If they were great leaders, I would be the first one to say they’re doing a great job.”
BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 13: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is escorted off stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter has died after wounding former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one bystander and injuring another. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Trump was asked why he felt God saved his life after the assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
“It was a miracle,” Trump said. “God had a hand in it. It’s a miracle and God had a hand in it.”
“Maybe it is — we want to save the world,” he added. “This world is going down.”
Hours before Thursday’s news conference, the Harris campaign released a fake email advisory titled “Donald Trump speaks incoherently and spreads dangerous lies in public, but from a different home.”
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris (left) and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz faced criticism on social media for sharing an “awkward” video of them interviewing each other. (Rhonda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images)
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And Harris campaign spokesman James Singer told Fox News that “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are speaking to voters, laying out the perspective of the middle class, and telling Americans they will fight for their freedom.”
He argued that “Donald Trump can talk to whoever he wants, but he can’t articulate his toxic Project 2025 agenda, speak in coherent ideas, or deliver anything to the middle class other than humiliation and higher prices.”
