A week ago, former president was riding high, but now he faces vibrant, younger rival who hit the ground running<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump capped a tough week in which his Democratic opponents turned the tables, replacing aging Joe Biden with Kamala Harris<\/a> as their top choice for president, by resorting to insults and extremism<\/a> on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A week ago, Trump was riding high on the iconic moment when he rose bloodied and with a defiantly raised fist from an assassination attempt<\/a>, pulling away in the polls<\/a>. Biden, meanwhile, was struggling to recover from his dire late June debate against the Republican nominee and an unconvincing performance in the days since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with the former president suddenly facing a vibrant, younger rival in Harris, who hit the ground running<\/a> after Biden quit his re-election<\/a> campaign last Sunday and quickly endorsed her for the top of the ticket, Trump called her \u201ca bum\u201d and said he \u201ccouldn\u2019t care less\u201d if he mispronounced her name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a rally in Florida on Friday night organized by the far-right Christian advocacy group Turning Point Action, Trump not only went personal against the US vice-president, but once again appeared to threaten American democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChristians, get out and vote! Just this time \u2013 you won\u2019t have to do it anymore. You know what? It\u2019ll be fixed! It\u2019ll be fine. You won\u2019t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians,\u201d he said at the event in West Palm Beach, not far from his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has been adopted by much of the US evangelical Christian right as a flawed champion, besmirched by losing in sexual misconduct<\/a> and business fraud<\/a> civil cases and convicted on criminal counts for election-related fraud<\/a> in a case involving an adult film actor who alleged an extramarital sexual encounter with him. With other criminal cases<\/a> ongoing, he is nevertheless the one-term president who tilted the US supreme court<\/a> against abortion<\/a>, gun control, government experts<\/a>, voting rights and diversity efforts in higher education<\/a>, delighting his white, ultra-conservative base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Friday\u2019s rally, he also lit into Harris. She won the support<\/a> not only of Biden but of the Obamas<\/a>, the Clintons and the Democratic leaders in Congress last week, and if she is officially anointed at the party\u2019s convention next month, she will be the first Black female nominee, the first south Asian nominee, and, if she beats Trump in November<\/a>, America\u2019s first female president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Trump called her<\/a> \u201cthe most incompetent, unpopular and far-left vice-president in American history\u201d. And in a seeming nod to how the campaign has been upended, he said: \u201c<\/em>She was a bum three weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also pronounced her name Ka-MAH-la Harris, whereas the vice-president pronounces her name<\/a> KAHM-a-la.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He insisted<\/a> that he had been told there are numerous ways to say her name and added: \u201cI said: \u2018Don\u2019t worry about it, doesn\u2019t matter what I say, I couldn\u2019t care less if I mispronounce it or not.\u2019 Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose but actually I\u2019ve heard it said about seven different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has variously called Harris \u201ccrazy\u201d, \u201cnuts\u201d and \u201cdumb as a rock\u201d. Some Republicans<\/a> in Congress disparage her as a \u201cdiversity hire\u201d, even though in her career before she became the first female US vice-president she had been elected as the district attorney of San Francisco, the attorney general of California and a US senator. Rightwing activists and trolls have smeared her online with racist, sexist and sexualized barbs, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But opinion polls show that in just a few days, Harris, 59, has closed<\/a> to within a point or two of Trump, whereas Biden had fallen around six points behind and was losing support in vital swing states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump, 78, is now the oldest nominee to run for president. Earlier in the week, Trump also said Harris<\/a> \u201cdoesn\u2019t like Jewish people\u201d after she did not attend<\/a> Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s in-person visit and address to a joint session of Congress in Washington where the Israeli prime minister defended Israel\u2019s war<\/a> in Gaza. Harris spoke out strongly against the suffering of Palestinian civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump made the remark despite Harris\u2019s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, being Jewish and being involved<\/a> in an antisemitism taskforce for the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last week, Trump also experienced another wobble in his trajectory. After introducing his choice of running mate at the Republican national convention as young gun and US senator for Ohio JD Vance<\/a> to great fanfare, some within Republican circles began to lament Vance<\/a> as a liability rather than a boon to the Trump ticket, following awkward performances on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, Jennifer Aniston went viral criticizing Vance<\/a>\u2019s past comments disparaging the likes of Harris, who is a stepmother but has not given birth, as unhappy \u201cchildless cat ladies\u201d..<\/p>\n\n\n\n And on Saturday, the New York Times published excerpts<\/a> from communications between Vance and a peer from Yale Law School who said their close friendship broke down in 2021 when Vance supported a ban by Arkansas on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. It was the first such ban in the country \u2013 later struck down<\/a> in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former friend Sofia Nelson is transgender and told the publication that the public should know what Vance has said, including more about his pivot from being a Trump opponent to an acolyte. This included Vance writing \u201cI hate the police\u201d after white officers killed a Black 18-year-old, Michael Brown<\/a>, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and calling Trump a demagogue, a disaster and \u201cmorally reprehensible\u201d while saying the greater his appeal to the white electorate, the worse it would be for Black voters. The Vance campaign called Nelson\u2019s decision to disclose private conversations unfortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday night, Trump and Vance are due to appear at a rally in Minnesota, hoping to get their campaign off the back foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n