Trump appeared without bandage since assassination attempt
In his first public appearance without an ear bandage since surviving an assassination attempt, Trump addressed a gathering at the Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he also portrayed Harris as a proponent of extreme left-wing policies and accused her of wanting to impose “crazy San Francisco liberal values” on the nation, citing her potential judicial appointments as a means to enforce these views nationwide.
“Kamala Harris will appoint hundreds of extreme far-left judges to forcibly impose crazy San Francisco liberal values on Americans,” Trump said.
Shift in campaign focus following Biden’s withdrawal
This speech marked Trump’s second major campaign appearance since President Joe Biden’s unexpected decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race earlier this week. The shift in the race dynamics led Trump to refocus his criticisms from Biden to Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The former president also declared Harris “worse than Joe Biden and, in a true sense, much more liberal.”
Trump continued to take digs at President Biden, saying, “Biden didn’t want to do what he did. He said, ‘I will never go out, I will never ever go out.’ Two days later, ‘I’m proud to go out.’ Because the fascists threatened him with the 25th Amendment. They said we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way, Joe. That’s what happened, I know. I know as many people on that side as I know on our side. But that’s what happened. And now they are trying to make him a brave hero. ‘He is so brave.’
Trump also took aim at Biden’s recent speech regarding his decision to withdraw. “The other night he made a speech. Look, I am not going to look into it, I am going to give people credit or no credit. It was horrible,” Trump remarked, questioning the sincerity and quality of Biden’s address.
Dig at Harris’ name
The Republican presidential nominee also took jabs at Harris’ name, which he has been repeatedly accused of fumbling on purpose.
“And by the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name. They were explaining to me, ‘You can say Comma-la, you can say Kah-mala,’” Trump said. He consistently uses the latter, which is incorrect.
“I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what I say,’” he continued. “I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it.”
‘Kamala is Biden’s border czar’
Trump’s speech continued his campaign’s pattern of attacking Harris on immigration issues, despite her role not encompassing overall border policy. He described her as President Biden’s “border czar,” a designation not officially assigned but used by Republicans to criticize her handling of migration issues, reported the Washington Post.
Trump’s speech, aimed at a predominantly Christian audience, was notable for its direct assault on Harris’s policies and beliefs. He claimed that Harris would expand the Supreme Court with “hard-core Marxists” to undermine the Constitution and religious freedoms. Trump’s rhetoric also included controversial statements about abortion rights, accusing Harris of supporting extreme late-term abortions—a claim that is not supported by current laws or Harris’s actual policy positions.
In addition to his abortion comments, Trump criticized Harris for her handling of immigration, broadly characterizing immigrants in a negative light and alleging without evidence that Harris and Democrats were encouraging illegal border crossings to increase voter rolls.
Trump also took aim at Harris’s response to the Israel-Palestine conflict, accusing her of being “hostile to Americans of faith” and failing to support Israel adequately. He used his recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate to bolster his pro-Israel stance and further criticize Harris.
James Singer, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, condemned Trump’s remarks as offensive and misleading. “Trump went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant—let alone be president of the United States,” Singer said in a statement.
