Donald Trump attacks 'stupid' Vice-President Kamala Harris, pitches to cut energy prices

Donald Trump has lobbed a series of personal and policy-based attacks at Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a speech, hoping to recover from a difficult stretch during which his lead in opinion polls has all but evaporated.

The former US president today told supporters in Asheville, North Carolina, he would open up Federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines among other measures designed to bring down consumers prices should he win the November 5 election.

“Now this is a little bit of a different day, because we’re talking about a thing called the economy. They wanted to do a speech on the economy,” Trump said in an apparent reference to his campaign aides.

“They say it’s the most important subject, I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important subject. Inflation is the most important but that’s part of the economy

“We’ve got to bring energy prices down. We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months – at a maximum 18 months,” Trump said, giving both a figure and timeframe for the first time.

“If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh, well, I voted for him. I still got them down a lot’, but we’re looking to do it. We’re looking to cut ’em in half.”

But he then resumed attacks on Vice-President Harris’ intellect that many allies and donors had hoped he would ditch, at one point calling her “stupid” and denigrating her laugh as a “cackle,” saying: “That’s the laugh of a person with some big problems.”

Some allies, donors and advisers have expressed concern at Trump’s deeply personal attacks on Harris in recent weeks and suggested that he instead focus on what they argue are the failed policies she has promoted while in office.

In the Republican presidential candidate’s speech this morning (AEST), he sought to do both and steered clear of broadsides challenging Ms Harris’ racial identity which have provoked concerns in previous events.

In recent weeks he has frequently implied that Ms Harris, whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica, has only recently leaned into her black identity.

“Personally it makes no difference to me what Kamala wants to identify as,” said Bill Bean, a major Republican donor who hosted Mr Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, at an Indiana fundraiser in late July.

Bean said he had talked with Vance and Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley about the need to attack Harris on her policy record, not her identity.

Before the speech Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address those criticisms directly, but argued Mr Trump would beat Ms Harris due to the Vice-President’s record in office.

Mr Harris has shown massive fundraising figures since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month and paved the way for her bid.

National polling averages show she has opened a modest lead against Mr Trump, while polls in the swing states likely to decide the November 5 election consistently show a tight race.

In a memo released before Mr Trump’s Asheville event, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler accused Mr Trump of neglecting the middle class by opposing union protections and backing corporate tax cuts, among other measures.

On Friday Mr Harris will travel to North Carolina, where she will talk about economic policy in a speech in Raleigh. She will outline a plan “to lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging,” a campaign official said.

Earlier, Trump cast his ballot in the Republican primary for Federal and State offices in Florida. While the former president has encouraged voters to cast their ballots whenever is convenient for them, he also has said - without providing evidence - that early voting is corrupt and prone to fraud.

Vance spoke on Wednesday to supporters near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he accused Ms Harris of lacking an economic plan and criticised her for not answering enough questions from the press.

Mr Trump’s appearance in Asheville follows an at-times rambling interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk on Monday night, which was marred by technical difficulties.

Last week, Mr Trump convened a meandering press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and over the weekend he falsely accused the Harris campaign of using artificial intelligence to make her crowds at a rally in Michigan appear larger than they were.