Former President Donald Trump is holding rallies in battleground states to tout his economic plans and realign his campaign amid an intensifying presidential race.
In a 90-minute speech in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump promised to lower consumer prices and raise wages through permanent tax cuts, energy policy reform and the repeal of environmental protections.
Wednesday’s rally was Trump’s second in two weeks, signaling a slowdown in the former president’s campaign.
He often veers off topic and has a penchant for attacking his political rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and once said, “I’m not sure the economy is the most important story in this election.”
No new proposals were announced in President Trump’s speech.
In his second term, he vowed to “rapidly lower prices and make America affordable again.”
He claimed the Biden-Harris administration has “destroyed” the US economy and asked the audience: “Does anyone feel like they’ve gotten better off under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe?”
U.S. inflation rose to its lowest level in more than three years last month, providing relief to consumers and a potential boost for Harris’ campaign.
Trump also promised to lower energy costs by opening up more land for drilling and vowed to roll back renewable energy and infrastructure projects approved by President Joe Biden.
At the end of his speech, he said he would keep intact the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, despite his previous attempts to repeal the law while in office.
Trump frequently went off-message, criticizing Harris on issues like immigration and crime and calling her “not smart” and “laughing like crazy.”
In a statement, Harris’ campaign countered that Trump chose to ignore “inconvenient facts” about the economy in his speech.
“He lied. He spoke incoherently. He yelled. He said the economy was not an important issue,” the report said.
Trump has been on the defensive in recent days after Harris replaced Biden as the nominee, giving the Democratic candidate a boost.
The Trump campaign is reportedly trying to realign the candidate’s messaging after several events in which the former real estate mogul was less focused on policy.
A new survey from the Cook Political Report finds that Harris is overtaking Trump’s polling lead in several battleground states.
According to the magazine, she is ahead of the former president in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and they are tied in Georgia.
But the race remains highly competitive ahead of the November election, and polls also show that voters trust Trump more than Harris on economic issues.
Harris is scheduled to visit North Carolina on Friday to deliver a speech outlining her economic proposals.
Outside the Asheville venue where Trump spoke, supporters explained to BBC News why they supported the former president.
“The fact that he’s sticking up for what he believes in and standing up for his country is amazing,” Asheville resident Lisa Ramsey said.
Zach Young, from nearby Hendersonville, said the Biden administration has overseen “three and a half years of suffering.”
“We need to get back on the right track. The country needs to be run like a business,” he said.
The economic speech came after the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over comments made by President Trump and Elon Musk.
In a conversation on X/Twitter on Monday, President Trump praised Musk for firing striking workers.
Trump said that when workers go on strike, “they say, ‘OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone.’ I mean, you’re all gone.”
However, federal law says companies cannot fire employees during a strike.
The union announced Wednesday that it plans to mobilize 1 million current and retired workers to vote for Harris.
The move is a boost for campaigning in battleground states such as Michigan, where UAW members accounted for 9.2% of the vote for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, the union said.
“This is what we mean when we say Donald Trump is a strikebreaker. This is what we mean when we say Trump is against everything our union stands for,” UAW President Sean Fain said in a statement.
Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, echoed similar sentiments.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention last month, O’Brien called Trump a “tough bastard.”
Prior to his comments with Musk, the Republican candidate, he had made several statements in favor of labor.
Trump voted in Florida’s primary election early Wednesday morning. His vote was submitted during the early voting period.
He has previously criticized early voting, claiming without evidence that it leads to election fraud.
