Former President Donald Trump, who has been criticized for his excessive personal attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and his own goals, has focused his attacks on economic issues, unlike usual. It seems that he has listened to some of the Republican Party’s urging to focus his campaign message on policy, as his characteristically foul language and cross-the-line slander have had the opposite effect rather than dampening Vice President Harris’s recent rise.
In a campaign speech held in Asheville, North Carolina on the 14th, former President Trump devoted a significant portion of his speech to criticizing the issue of inflation and the economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration. Prices and the economy are the most important issues that voters consider to be the biggest weaknesses of the current administration, but former President Trump has not focused on them so far. Before starting his full-fledged speech, former President Trump told the audience that this campaign would be an “intellectual speech” that would deal with the economy, unlike usual, and that “we are all intellectuals today.” He repeatedly stated, “They say this is the most important topic. I’m not sure, but they say this is the most important.”
Recently, key figures in the Republican Party have been urging former President Trump to refrain from personal attacks that only cause negative controversy and to focus on policies that the Republican Party is in favor of, such as the economy and border issues. This was a criticism that came out when former President Trump, who was comfortably ahead when President Biden was a presidential candidate, made unreasonable personal attacks targeting Vice President Harris’s racial identity and other issues, and showed a lack of direction by obsessing over the size of campaigns that were unrelated to the situation.
On this day, former President Trump explained his plans to lower prices. He announced that on his first day in office, he would sign an executive order instructing all Cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies to use all available authority to lower prices. He also promised to develop America’s oil and gas resources and cut energy costs, including electricity rates, by more than half. He claimed that Vice President Harris would ban fracking, a method of drilling for shale gas and abandon oil and gas energy, and said, “She can’t win Pennsylvania.”
Vice President Harris had promised to ban fracking, a controversial shale gas drilling technique that causes environmental destruction, during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but withdrew it during this election. In Pennsylvania, which relies on the natural gas industry for its economy, whether to allow fracking is a sensitive issue. Former President Trump criticized Vice President Harris for not controlling prices for the past three and a half years, saying, “Her desk is ten steps from the Oval Office.”
He attacked Vice President Harris for copying his promise to eliminate tipping taxes, saying that Vice President Harris’s economic plan, which will be released on the 16th, “will be a copy of my plan.” Former President Trump also said during his campaign speech that day that he would impose “tariffs of 10% to 20%” on foreign countries. In previous media interviews, he had said that he would impose a 10% tariff on goods imported from all countries, but this time he mentioned up to 20%.
Although he focused on economic issues for once, he was unable to completely refrain from personal attacks. Former President Trump even mocked the way Vice President Harris laughs, saying, “That’s a crazy person’s laugh. She’s crazy.” He also repeatedly criticized Vice President Harris while discussing the economy, claiming that the reason Vice President Harris hasn’t done a media interview since her candidacy is “because she’s not smart.”