ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WSPA/AP) – Former president Donald Trump spoke at a campaign event Wednesday afternoon in downtown Asheville.
Watch the full replay of the event in the video player above.
Donald Trump sought to recalibrate his presidential comeback bid with a rally focused on the economy, but he struggled to stay focused on a topic that voters identify as a top concern.
Trump opened his speech with off-script attacks on the media and aired his grievances over the Democrats swapping Vice President Kamala Harris for President Joe Biden atop their ticket. He referred to San Francisco, where Harris was once the district attorney, as “unlivable” and went after his rival in deeply personal terms, questioning her intelligence and saying she has “the laugh of a crazy person.”
“You know why she hasn’t done an interview? She’s not smart. She’s not intelligent. And we’ve gone through enough of that with this guy, crooked Joe,” Trump said, using the nickname he often uses for Biden.
Trump said that his aides wanted him to focus on economic concerns but that he was “not sure” he agreed the economy is the most important issue of the election.
Trump spoke at Harrah’s Cherokee Center, an auditorium in downtown Asheville, with his podium flanked by more than a dozen American flags and custom backdrops that read: “No tax on Social Security” and “No tax on tips.”
Republicans had been looking for Trump to focus more on the economy than in the scattershot arguments and attacks he has made on Harris since Democrats elevated her as their presidential nominee. Twice in the past week, Trump has virtually bypassed such opportunities, first in an hourlong news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, then in a 2 1/2-hour conversation on the social media platform X with CEO Elon Musk.
When he stayed on script Wednesday, Trump contrasted the current economy with his own presidency, asking, “Is anything less expensive under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe?”
“Kamala has declared that tackling inflation will be a ‘Day One priority’ for her,” Trump said. “But Day One for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Why hasn’t she done it?”
Throughout his speech, Trump ping-ponged between his prepared remarks and familiar attacks — often deviating from the teleprompter in the middle of explaining a new economic promise when something triggered another thought. He ticked through prepared remarks crisply and quickly. The rest was his more wide-ranging style, punctuated with hand gestures and hyperbole.
More than once, he jumped from a policy contrast with Harris to taking another swipe at her home town of San Francisco. He also noted several times that it was Biden, not Harris, who earned votes from Democratic primary voters. During a section of his speech on energy, he slipped in an apparent dig at Hunter Biden, the president’s son. and his “laptop from hell.”
As soon as Trump had committed in his speech to slashing energy prices by “half, at least half” within 12 months or “a maximum of 18,” he hedged, seemingly off script: “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, oh well, I voted for him and he still got it down a lot.”
Ahead of Trump’s visit, the North Carolina Democratic Party held a news conference to discuss the former president’s economic record.
“Despite whatever lies he may try to spread today, North Carolinians know that Donald Trump left our communities out to dry as president of the United States,” said Anderson Clayton, North Carolina Democratic Party chair. “Driving over 6,000 manufacturing jobs out of North Carolina, leaving rural hospitals on the brink of shutting down, and focusing on giving tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations instead of renewing and rebuilding out infrastructure.”
You can watch the full news conference in the video above.
