Trump says he's 'entitled' to make personal attacks on Harris, citing lack of respect
"She's not smart. I don't believe she loves our country," he said.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey -- his second in a week - former President Donald Trump said he's "entitled" to insult his Democratic opponent -- Vice President Kamala Harris -- because he doesn't respect her.
"I think I am entitled to personal attacks. I do not have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she'll be a terrible president. And I think it is very important that we win. And whether the personal attacks are good, bad – I mean, she certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird. 'He's weird,'" he said.
"She's not -- she's not smart. I don't believe she loves our country," he added.
"Some people say, 'Oh, why don't you be nice?' But they're not nice to me. They want to put me in prison," Trump complained. "They don't want me to be a little bit nasty. They want to put me in prison. Me!"
Asked about how his personal attacks on Harris could affect his standing with suburban women, moderates, and independents, Trump doubled down, saying he's running "a very calm campaign."
"No, I think that, I think relatively to what they're doing and how radical they are and how, in many ways, how sick they are, I think I'm doing a very calm campaign. I mean, we're here. There's no shouting."
Trump began by highlighting inflation and hitting Harris on the cost of grocery prices as he stood between two tables full of food store items such as cereal, deli meat, milk, eggs, baby formula and bread with a sign saying, "Price Increases since Kamala Harris took office."
"Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a Day 1 priority for her. It's going to be Day 1. But Day 1, really, for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Where has she been?" Trump said.
He ticked off a long list of what he said were higher costs for a variety of common grocery items but offered no sourcing for his claims, other than saying the numbers came from "the government."
Inflation peaked at 9.1% during the Biden-Harris administration but since cooled to 2.9% in July compared to a year ago --- the lowest inflation reading since March 2021.
He eventually veered off into talking about immigration, energy and other favorite topics, making numerous false claims and speaking for 45 minutes before taking any questions.
Thursday's news conference follows one that Trump held at his Mar-a-Lago estate last Thursday, fielding questions for more than an hour on a range of topics including his recent attacks on Harris, immigration and reproductive rights.
During that long and, at times, rambling exchange with reporters, Trump often pushed false claims on several topics, including the outcome of the 2020 election and size of the crowd at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally before the attacks on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
"She refuses to do any interviews or press conferences, almost 30 days now, she has not done an interview," Trump said of Harris on Wednesday in North Carolina. "You know why she hasn't done an interview? Because she's not smart. She's not intelligent," he said.
His campaign says she's trying to "duck and hide" from the news media.
Trump's recent news conferences appear to be part of the campaign's attempt to draw a contrast between the two candidates.
On Thursday, ABC News' Rachel Scott asked him about comments he made to Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk earlier in the week about striking workers, saying, "they go on strike, and you go, 'You're all gone.'"
"Are you really comfortable with companies threatening to fire workers who go on strike?" Scott asked.
"No, I want companies to get workers that are going to love them and work for a wage that lets the company make a profit so they can go and expand," Trump said.
Trump argued that his comments praising Musk for being the "greatest cutter" was not comparable to assertions he was advocating for companies to threaten to fire workers who go on strike -- and then went on to repeat rhetoric that undocumented immigrants are threatening union workers and Black and Hispanic communities.
The Harris campaign has been using Trump's news conferences to highlight flubs he has made and criticize policies he advocates.
"Trump did the only thing he knows how to do -- he went out and lied, made up stories, mixed up dates, attacked the media, and, overall, reminded Americans that he is a deeply unwell man," the Harris campaign said in a statement reacting to Trump's previous news conference.
During her time out on the campaign trail since announcing her White House bid, Harris has held a few exchanges with reporters aboard Air Force Two and answered a few shouted questions; however, her campaign says she will participate in a sit-down interview before the end of the month.
"We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually gonna decide this election and that is gonna be complete with rallies, with sit-down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets we have at our disposal," Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said on CNN Wednesday when pressed multiple times to commit to press conferences and media interviews.