Republican presidential candidate and former US President Trump arrived in West Palm Beach, Florida, the United States, on August 14, 2024, to vote early for the Florida primary.
Marco Bello | Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will paint a bleak picture of the U.S. economy in a speech on Wednesday and blame the administration of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This is basically a speech about the current state of our economy. Things have gotten very bad under this group of people, with inflation, with the economy itself, with a lot of other things,” Trump said in a speech scheduled for 4 p.m. told reporters before.
The speech came as Trump works to shake up his campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid in late July and endorsed Harris.
Trump’s solid lead over Biden has evaporated as Harris surges in polls. But Trump still maintains a long-term advantage over the Democrats in terms of which candidate voters think is best for the economy.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. Labor Department reported that annual inflation fell to 2.9% in July, the lowest level since 2021.
Over the past three years, Trump’s political fortunes have benefited greatly from high inflation and interest rates that squeezed consumers. Polls show that a majority of voters believe the U.S. economy is in recession and blame Biden for it.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a statement one day after Republican challenger Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally, next to Vice President Kamala Harris, at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 14, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
While attacks first on Biden and now on Harris, excessive inflation has served Trump well on the campaign trail so far, but new economic data could weaken Trump’s attacks.
Since Harris replaced Biden, North Carolina has reemerged as a key battleground state for Democrats. Trump won the Tar Heel State in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, but his polling advantage has narrowed recently.
Driven by renewed enthusiasm and hundreds of millions in donations, Harris will come to the state on Friday to deliver her own economic speech.
But it’s unclear whether Trump will stick to the script at Wednesday’s event. Trump went off topic during a recent more than two-hour interview on X. Tesla Chief Executive Musk held an hour-long news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Trump responded to his new opponent in part by questioning her racial identity and crowd size, trying to label her a series of derisive epithets and discredit her intelligence.
Some Trump allies warned him Reduce his attack range Substantial policy differences, or risk losing more persuasive voters.
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