WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — While the Democrats head to Maryland, former President Donald Trump held a news conference at his New Jersey golf resort Thursday.
He dismissed calls from allies for him to refocus on policy, saying he was “entitled to personal attacks” against Vice President Kamala Harris as polls show her erasing his polling lead.
Multiple journalists asked Trump about criticism from some Republicans he needs to be more disciplined and lay off the personal attacks on his opponent.
“As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country,” Trump said. “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks. I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president.
“And I think it’s very important that we win,” Trump continued. “And whether the personal attacks are good, bad. She certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me ‘weird.’”
Trump invited reporters to his National Golf Club Bedminster, where he often criticized Harris for allegedly avoiding the media.
In a statement announcing the event, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung highlighted that Harris hasn’t given an interview since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
Despite traveling with journalists aboard Air Force Two and sometimes answering questions while boarding or leaving the plane for campaign stops, Harris has had minimal engagement with reporters since becoming the Democratic nominee. In one brief interaction last week, she told reporters she wants “to get an interview together by the end of the month.”
From the beginning of Thursday’s news conference, Trump attacked Harris for what he sees as the vice president’s role in creating economic headaches for the average American.
“Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly,” Trump told reporters. “It’s very destructive to the entire world, frankly, because as we go, oftentimes, the world goes. She destroys everything she touches, and if she wins, your finances and your country will never recover.”
Trump said that grocery prices have skyrocketed under the Biden-Harris administration and claimed that Harris is now reportedly proposing “Communist price controls.”
“She wants price controls,” Trump said. “And if they worked, I’d go along with it, too, but they actually don’t work. They actually have the opposite impact and effect.”
Trump lays out parts of economic policy
Axios reports that Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone Wednesday about a possible cease-fire deal ahead of a meeting Thursday on the Israel-Hamas war overseas.
This comes after Trump bashed Harris during a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday. At the rally, Trump criticized Harris on several issues, including the economy.
“Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe than you were during the Trump administration? Is anything less expensive under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe? Are you better off now with Harris and Biden than you were with a person named President Donald J. Trump? Do you know him? He’s a nice gentleman,” Trump said.
During the rally, Trump laid out some of his economic policies, including leaning into the energy sector, vowing to cut energy and electric prices in half and increase oil drilling even more. The United States is already producing a record amount of domestic oil.
He also called for extending his signature tax cuts if he wins in November and called for an end to federal taxes on tips and Social Security for senior citizens.
Trump suggested he’d keep the Affordable Care Act in place but might make changes to lower Americans’ costs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.