CHICAGO – As Democrats gather in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, Republican nominees are campaigning in battleground states.
Former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), both bashed Vice President Kamala Harris and the economy while addressing voters in Pennsylvania.
Their message focused on the economy as some polls show Harris performing better in swing states than President Joe Biden did, and Trump – now faced with a new opponent – resorts to personal attacks over policy.
“Kamala Harris is an economy wrecker and country destroyer. Our country will be destroyed if she gets in,” Trump said.
This is Trump’s busiest week on the campaign trail in many months since the Republican Primary. Trump’s campaign is framing this as a “policy-focused battleground blitz” even as the former president’s own allies raise concerns about his personal attack on Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, is proposing a corporate tax hike to 28%, which reverses a Trump law that lowered the rate to 21%.
Trump surrogates were even on the ground in Chicago, hammering home their message from Trump Tower, just a few short miles from the United Center where the DNC is being held.
“Here’s a choice. Donald Trump is a business guy who understands how businesses work. Harris has no idea how businesses work…just look at it, grocery prices are up, gas prices are up, rent is up, I don’t know what you can find that’s not up,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) said.
Allies of the former president also took aim at how Harris became the presumptive nominee.
“Their nominee will be somebody who didn’t get one vote in the primary and they’re calling this defending democracy?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) said.
The Trump campaign believes the excitement of a new democratic nominee will eventually die down as it paints Harris’ agenda as “extremist.”
“It crushed our middle class, demolished our border, and set the world on fire, and now she wants to be promoted to the job Killer In Chief,” Trump said.
Trump is set to speak in Michigan on crime Tuesday, and national security in North Carolina on Wednesday before closing out the week in Arizona. Vance, meanwhile, will travel to Wisconsin and Georgia.