BEDMINSTER — After days of anxiety from Republicans about the former president’s ability to stay on point, the setting for Donald Trump’s press conference Thursday seemed on message enough. He walked out to meet reporters next to tables stacked with groceries, intended to send a signal about inflation. He then spent about 40 minutes zooming from one topic to another before even taking questions, eventually landing on why he’s right to personally attack Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaking at the exclusive Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and surrounded by coffee and Cheerios, Trump called Harris a “radical left San Francisco person who destroyed the place,” and has a “very strong Communist lean.”
“I think I’m entitled to personal attacks. I don’t have a lot of respect for her, I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence,” he said.
He said he’s entitled because she would “weaponize the justice system against me.”
The press conference came as the Trump campaign added several new high-level staffers, including 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Trump said Lewandowski would act as a “personal envoy” and that the additions were “a sign we want to close it out.”
Trump has consistently been polling at or below Harris in national polls over the last three weeks, though Trump claimed he’s “leading by a lot more than people think.”
In response to the poll numbers, Nikki Haley called on Trump this week to focus less on attacking Harris and more on courting suburban women and independent voters who will decide the election. On Thursday, Trump said he’s open to having Haley play a role in the campaign and to stump for him, but he said that he wouldn’t shift his message away from Harris.
“I appreciate her advice; I have to do it my way,” Trump said.
“People don’t know who she is,” Trump said of Harris. “She’s a radical left socialist, but beyond that, I mean, she’s way beyond socialism, who’s going to destroy our country,” he said.
Trump said he’s been told he should be “nice” to Harris but said he wouldn’t because of the judges and “crooked prosecutors” who “want to put me in prison.”
In a statement after the press conference, the Harris campaign said, “We aren’t sure what we just watched and neither is America.”
When asked about his policies to make groceries more affordable — the topic the props were there to emphasize — Trump instead focused on early voting, calling it “ridiculous” and saying that all states should have one-day voting on paper ballots with proof of citizenship required.
When asked if the federal government should be responsible for determining food prices in response to price gouging, Trump instead criticized Harris for being opposed to fracking. Harris was previously opposed to fracking but has changed her position and now supports it.
Repeatedly, Trump circled back to shutting down the border and claimed that Harris would give all undocumented migrants citizenship and health care (which she has not said). But Trump also briefly suggested support for legal migration. He said he would “close the border and get the crooked ones out” and then “let a lot of people in.”
“Because we need more people, especially with AI coming in and all the different things, and the farmers’ needs,” Trump said.
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.