At news conference, Trump says he’s ‘entitled to personal attacks’ against Harris

Toward the end of a meandering news conference, former President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he was “entitled” to continue his barrage of personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, even as Republican allies are pushing him to shift his tone and emphasize policy issues.

Saying he was “very angry” at Harris, Trump told reporters outside the clubhouse of his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, that “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” and that he had little respect for his Democratic opponent.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president,” he said, adding, “She certainly attacks me personally.”

The former president said that he didn’t need to moderate his tone to win the Republican primary, insisting that he was now running a “very calm campaign” – and even a calm news conference. “I didn’t rant and rave,” he said of his own performance as he was in the middle of it Thursday. “I’m a very calm person.” Still, Trump repeatedly cast his opponents as “radical” and “sick.”

His nearly 80-minute news conference was intended, in part, to show his renewed emphasis on the economy, inflation and other policy issues. He had props displayed on either side of him in anticipation of such a focus: a grocery-store haul that included 3 gallons of milk, seven Campbell’s soup cans, at least three dozen eggs and a box of Cheerios cereal that Trump said he wanted to take home with him.

But during both his remarks and a question-and-answer session with reporters, Trump bounced between his proposals to fight inflation, his dry recitation of economic figures that he used to criticize Harris and the Biden administration and a number of other wide-ranging tangents, including complaints about Hillary Clinton, windmills, the news media and President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the race.

The news conference was one of several events the Trump campaign has held recently as it tries to slow the momentum Harris has gained after quickly uniting Democrats behind her as the party’s presidential nominee. His top advisers have urged him to focus on the economy, immigration and crime – issues on which they believe his message will sway undecided voters.

But much as he did at an ostensibly economy-focused speech in North Carolina the night before, Trump on Thursday declined to stick to the script. Though he walked up to the podium with a binder containing prepared remarks, Trump, just minutes into his speech, veered into asides.

For brief periods, Trump railed against things like the rising costs of gasoline, mortgage rates and housing. Then, he detoured toward criticizing Harris’ running mate for approving a bill that put tampons in school bathrooms. He lamented that he “should have been a little bit easier” on Biden in their debate in June (Biden’s debate performance cleared the way for Harris to become the Democratic nominee).

Still, Trump hewed a bit closer to his prepared remarks than he typically does during his events, as he tried to lay the blame for the Biden administration’s economic policies on Harris – even though he had been blaming Biden for the same issues for years. Speaking for nearly 45 minutes before taking questions, Trump tried to argue to reporters that Harris was “a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world.”

Harris is expected Friday to outline her economic policy and call for a federal ban on corporate price-gouging on groceries. Trump attacked her for wanting to impose “price controls” and insisted that her plan – which he has no details about – would lead to “food shortages, rationing and hunger,” a broad claim that cannot be checked without more information.

In a statement, James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said Trump “huffed and puffed his opposition to lowering food costs for middle- and working-class Americans and prescription drug costs for seniors before pivoting back to his usual lies and delusions.”

Trump again insisted he would curb price increases by boosting U.S. energy production, even as the country is producing significantly more crude oil today than it did under the Trump administration. He said he would terminate the Biden administration’s efforts to fight climate change, which he blamed for rising energy costs that he said were at the heart of inflation.

And Trump said he would make fossil fuels and nuclear energy key efforts to bring prices down, reviving a familiar and exaggerated rant about how windmills left “thousands of birds dead” and were an eyesore on the American countryside.

“I want clean water,” Trump said. “I want clean air. But you can’t destroy your country over it.”

Thursday’s event was Trump’s second news conference in two weeks, as he and his allies have criticized Harris for not holding a news conference and taunted her for not conducting interviews since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.

As he wrapped, Trump again accused Harris of hiding from reporters, though she has fielded questions from reporters traveling with her. “I believe she’s grossly incompetent, and I don’t think that when people hear what she has to say, they’re going to buy it,” he said.

Recent polls have shown Harris gaining ground in key swing states, though the race remains tight. A New York Times/Siena College poll released last weekend showed Harris making major gains in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.