Trump's political war warning for Harris

Trump's action is some of the harshest political rhetoric in years, even by his own standards, and means the next two months are likely to be brutal. He is trying to tarnish the image of Vice President Kamala Harris and destroy her reputation as a potential president. But Trump's behavior carries its own risks. His stance could distract from Harris' warnings that Americans are looking for a chance to put the bitterness and chaos of the Trump era behind them.

Former US President Donald Trump is trying to tarnish Democratic candidate Kamala Harris's persona as a force for change and destroy her credibility as a potential presidential candidate as the race between them continues eight weeks before Election Day.

In recent days, Trump has widely attacked him for using the offensive politics he used to win the 2016 election, even as his advisers have urged him to focus on key voter concerns such as high prices and immigration.

He is using foreign tragedies to accuse the vice president of being responsible for the deaths of American troops in Afghanistan and claiming she is complicit in the killing of hostages in Gaza. Republican candidate and senator JD Vance has claimed that her mixed race is evidence of an evil "chameleon" character that also explains changing policies on energy and immigration. At one point, Trump has amplified sexual slander against her on social networks. And his dark campaign ads claim that Harris will slash Social Security benefits by welcoming millions of undocumented immigrants into the country. 

And in a repeat of past Republican Party (GOP) campaigns that cast Democratic candidates as extreme liberals, Trump and his supporters are trying to frame Harris as a communist and a "Bolshevik." South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has described Senator Tim Walz, chosen by Harris as a candidate for vice president, as a "security risk" since he once taught in China. And Trump has also begun to comment that the upcoming election may not be "free and fair" and said in an interview that it was ridiculous to be accused of "meddling" in the 2020 election. That and recent comments have heightened the specter of another national nightmare if he loses the November election and refuses to accept defeat.

Trump's reluctance to find divisiveness has also led him to tout his policy moves on reproductive rights as he seeks to narrow the survey's widening gender gap. But his credibility may have been destroyed, having created a Supreme Court with a conservative majority that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Vance also seems to have a knack for disparaging female voters — as when he compared Harris to an angsty teenage beauty pageant contestant.

Trump is not being fair to his ill-disciplined self. He is illustrating the problems he has in responding to Harris' transformation of the race. The increasingly embarrassing efforts to undermine Harris' hopes also point to frustration in the Trump camp that she is managing to differentiate herself from her boss and that she is presenting a fresher option than her 78-year-old rival from GOP. And Trump is showing that there is almost nothing he can't do to win.

Trump is trying to compensate for his responsibilities

Trump's action is some of the harshest political rhetoric in years, even by his own standards, and means the next two months are likely to be brutal.
The question is whether this barrage of negative attacks is successful in stoking the sense of existential anger that Trump uses to drive the polls, or whether it begins to tarnish Harris in the battleground states.

It probably makes little sense for Trump to tell Harris everything on his mind. In two presidential elections, the former president has never reached more than 49 percent of the vote in the so-called "blue wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin or on the national court. So his chances in November may depend more on destroying Harris' positive factor and damaging her prospects among small groups of voters in swing states than on holding out hope of winning over new voters herself. 

But Trump's behavior carries its own risks. His stance two weeks ago, including a campaign photo at Arlington National Cemetery with a smile and a thumbs-up, which could be a violation of the law, could bolster Harris' warnings that Americans are looking for a chance to leave behind the bitterness and chaos of the Trump era.

Even though Harris has returned the race to a tie for victory, her campaign recognizes the threat from Trump. "Make no mistake: The next 65 days will be very difficult," Harris campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillion wrote, despite arguments that the vice president has some path to the White House. "This race will remain strong and the voters who will decide in this election will take a lot of work to convince."

Harris campaigned in Detroit and with Biden in Pittsburgh to mark Labor Day, reflecting the importance of union members. Construction workers have traditionally voted Democratic, but the cultural transformation that Trump has brought to the GOP now attracts many workers, especially from rural areas. And Harris' appearance with Biden in the Steel City hinted at how the president could help her campaign in a state and voting demographic where he remains popular.

The failure of Trump's efforts to define Harris

Trump's wild political offensive is Harris' warning of what to expect and highlights how difficult it will be to extend the smooth development of her surprise candidacy, Walz's election and successful convention. But the former president's intensity is also a sign — reflected in favorable public opinion polls nationally and in swing states — that his early efforts to cast Harris in a negative light haven't worked.

Harris is being criticized by Republicans for a lack of policy specifications and a reversal of previous positions on the oil and gas extraction process and immigration. But her accommodation of centrist positions also appears to narrow Trump and cause problems for his efforts to attack her politically. Her decision to tackle the supermarket giants' high prices, vowing to cut them, may explain how she has narrowed the gap with Trump on who is more trusted on the economy.

Comments on Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery two weeks ago also showed how the former president's tough tactics could hurt him as much as Harris.
Trump's tribute to 13 US service members killed in a suicide bombing amid chaotic US evacuations in Afghanistan in 2021 represents one of the worst moments of the Biden-Harris administration. And while the vice president has joined the meeting in the "Situation Room" — a room in a government building where people in authority get the latest information about something serious going on — about the crisis, it's unclear whether Trump can personally blame her for voters' minds about personnel deaths since Biden was commander-in-chief at the time.

Harris has taken steps to oppose Trump's move on Afghanistan, when she wrote on social media that he had "desecrated the holy land just for political show" by shooting campaign videos at soldiers' cemeteries and that this was part of of a pattern of insulting the sacrifices of American warriors. Trump has responded by releasing videos of some of the relatives of fallen soldiers accusing Harris and Biden of complicity in the killing of their loved ones and supporting Trump.

This episode has shown how Trump is able to cross the line that many conventional politicians would consider off limits. While some voters may consider him to be honoring the fallen, others may agree with Harris that he is using the deaths of Americans in foreign wars for political gain.

As for other problems, Harris is refusing to fall prey to the political war with Trump, which could damage his image. For example, the vice president was asked by CNN in an interview last week about Trump's claim that she "happened to be black" for political reasons. "Same tired old stuff. The next question, please," said Harris.

However, the Harris campaign has rejected Trump's argument that he did nothing wrong in 2020. The former president said in an interview with Fox News that "anyone who heard you accused of meddling in the presidential election, where you do you have the right to do that?”
Harris and Walziti spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika wrapped up his remarks with the campaign's most-used argument that it's time to put Trump's dictatorial instincts in the past.

"The American people are ready for a new way forward. They know that Vice President Harris is the tough prosecutor we need to cut through the chaos, fear and division and uphold the rule of law," Chitika said.

The exchange encapsulates the stakes at the heart of the campaign's bitter end: Trump is putting his faith in a tough push to do whatever it takes to unseat Harris; and the vice president is betting that his extreme efforts to do so will convince enough voters that he is unfit to return to the Oval Office.