ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Former President Donald Trump spent much of his Minnesota rally dinging President Joe Biden — despite him no longer being his 2024 opponent.
The rally often mirrored his campaign events from before the assassination attempt and the start of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd, Trump mocked Biden’s golf game, cognitive ability and performance at events. He criticized his former opponent’s son Hunter Biden and called the president names. Trump ridiculed how Biden walked, meandering about the stage in an effort to depict Biden being unable to exit an event.
Even as he pivoted to attack Harris, Trump himself seemed to allude to the constants that have persisted over the past month, despite the seismic shakeups in the 2024 race. The former president discussed the assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania, a life-or-death experience that could be transformational for many. But Trump said he hasn’t changed since the attempt on his life.
“They all say, ‘I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed since two weeks ago. Something affected him,’” Trump said, referring to the assassination attempt. “No, I haven’t changed. Maybe I’ve gotten worse, actually, because I get angry at the incompetence that I witness every single day, the way millions of people are pouring into our country.”
When Trump turned to Harris, he often focused on her record on the U.S.-Mexico border and worked to paint her as “a radical left lunatic.”
The former president also criticized Democrats, arguing that Biden stepping aside “was really a coup of and by the Democrats.”
“We have a new victim now, Kamala,” Trump said. “We have a new victim. We have a brand new victim.”
The Trump campaign conflated Biden’s and Harris’ campaigns in a statement, arguing that “Biden’s record is Kamala’s record.”
“She owns and is complicit in every bad thing that has happened, from overseeing the border crisis, to out of control inflation, to unrest on the world stage,” said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung in a statement.
Before Trump took the stage, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance from Ohio, honed in on Harris, referring to her as “whacky,” “out-of touch” and “a card-carrying member of the lunatic fringe.”
The Harris campaign in a statement blasted Trump as a “bitter, unhinged, 78-year-old convicted felon.”
Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika pointed to Trump having “rambled about his former opponent and golfing,” adding later, “Does he remember who his opponent is?”
“Trump has made his goals clear: he’s determined to drag us backward, undermine our democracy, and enact his Project 2025 agenda to rip away our freedoms,” the statement said.
A New York Times/Siena poll conducted after Biden left the race found that Trump and Harris are locked in a neck-and-neck race. Among likely voters, 48% preferred Trump an 47% choose Harris, though the results are within the poll’s margin of error.
Aaron Gilchrist, Lindsey Pipia and Alex Tabet contributed.
