Trump’s extreme vision for America hikes pressure on Harris

Trump is envisioning a revolutionary new White House term that transforms America and the world. Vice President Kamala Harris has three weeks to stop it as she tries to regain momentum in a tight race to Election Day.

Following his defamatory declaration that Haitian migrants in Ohio were gorging on pets, the Republican nominee cautioned that “bad genes” have “invaded” the country, a ramped-up version of the worst anti-immigrant rhetoric the US has ever witnessed. Trump baselessly said at a Sunday rally in Arizona that “the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp” if Harris was elected.

He again pledged to “begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States,” promising to block the border in Colorado two days earlier. We will end illegal immigration. We’ll defend our area. No one will defeat us.”

He warned his opponents on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he may unleash the military against “the enemy from within.” At a rally Saturday, the ex-president, who incited violence to continue in power after the 2020 election, said a free speech heckler should “get the hell knocked out of” her.

This weekend, Trump threatened to withhold federal disaster aid to Democratic-run California while falsely accusing Harris and President Joe Biden of doing the same to hurricane-hit Republican districts, showing how he could use presidential power for his own benefit.

Trump said CBS should lose its licence because of its editorial decisions over Harris’s ’60 Minutes’ interview, which he declined. After an employee published Sen. JD Vance’s private messages criticising the former president, Trump’s allies threatened to withdraw Deloitte’s federal contracts, raising concerns about how a new administration may treat big business.

After the Kremlin verified Trump provided Covid-19 samples to a Russian dictator who is a sworn enemy of the US during a pandemic he minimised, additional details appear about the former president’s genuflection to foreign tyrants like Vladimir Putin.

Trump hasn’t always followed through, history shows. However, his historical behaviour encourages taking his warnings seriously.

A Supreme Court rule giving presidents broad protection suggests few obstacles to imperial executive power.

Harris is already under immense strain from Trump’s fanaticism. Many prominent Democratic officials, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, are urging swing state voters, especially Black and Latino ones Harris needs, not to allow Trump return.

At a rally in North Carolina on Sunday, the vice president criticised Trump for not releasing his medical records (soon after announcing her own) and for refusing to meet her in a second debate or be interviewed by “60 Minutes.”

“He lacks transparency with voters. Why does his staff want him to hide? Do they fear others would regard him as weak and unstable? she asked.

Growing fears among Democrats

Democrats are worried that Harris’ July entry, August convention, and September debate performance have not yet given her a decisive advantage over Trump.

The latest CNN average of national polls, which includes Sunday neck-and-neck CBS, ABC, and NBC surveys, has no clear leader. Harris, like Hillary Clinton, might win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College even if she led national surveys.

The close race three weeks out illustrates that Trump, an outsider, is delivering millions of Americans what they desire. Republicans say Harris-Biden policies produced a jump in inflation the White House downplayed for months. Trump claims the White House is weak worldwide due to the disorderly US departure from Afghanistan. After Biden failed to address immigration policy or politics earlier in his administration, Democrats gave Trump a major chance on a crucial subject.

The close race implies that Democrats have failed to generate a candidate and message that can reassure them about the election result for the third time in a row, despite Trump’s unapologetic extremism. Trump’s strongman leadership may horrify liberals and moderates, but he’s winning on the economy, which voters say is the top election concern. Even though the job market is strong, inflation is low, and interest rates are falling, 59% of ABC News/Ipsos respondents say it’s getting worse.

The nation’s gloomy attitude makes Harris’ vice presidency a burden. In a recent interview with ABC’s “The View,” she failed to name one thing she would have done differently than Biden, a mistake Trump will abuse until Election Day.

Harris has proposed plans to lower health care costs, help people buy and rent houses, and restore a bipartisan border bill Trump cancelled. Interviews often fall short of the complex storyline surrounding his campaign. Trump’s promise to deport immigrants, hit the U.S. with tariffs. business rivals, and heal the ungovernable world is complex, but difficult.

Democrats looking for reassurance might note that most polls show Trump at 48% or less. His normal ceiling in national elections remains, but Harris may have opportunity to improve. 10% of NBC News voters said they might change their minds. An unclaimed “sliver” was still on the network. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia could be decided by late support shifts.

Electoral composition is also important. Will Harris’ focus on abortion rights increase women’s turnout, surprising pollsters? Can she stop her opponent’s Black male and Hispanic gains? Will Trump attract Americans who agree with him on many issues but rarely vote?

What Harris needs to do

Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik thinks the election is 50-50 and that Harris plateaued in the previous 10 days as Trump gained ground. He told CNN Political Director David Chalian on the “CNN Political Briefing” podcast that the presidency may rely on which candidate becomes a change agent.

Trump’s campaign produced a document Sunday saying that question was answered. “She can’t convince voters that she is ‘the change agent’ in the race, that she will improve the economy, inflation, immigration, crime, or people’s financial situation,” the letter added. The bottom line is that they believe Trump will perform better.

However, Sosnik said the campaign would “really boil down to Harris and whether she can stand up to the pressure and the scrutiny and whether she can create a permission structure for people who don’t want to vote for Trump but are concerned about Harris.” He emphasised that she has not provided enough reasons for voters to support her at this time.

Limited opportunities to directly challenge Trump hinder Harris’ task. The former president, who has spent weeks criticising Hillary for avoiding the press, rarely leaves conservative media and Fox News, where he gets praise rather than criticism.

He skipped a second presidential debate against Harris and left a “60 Minutes” interview before criticising the vice president. Most of Trump’s rallies rarely get end-to-end coverage outside of conservative media, unlike in 2016, when they were hard to escape on cable. Many supporters may not enjoy his extreme and more incoherent antics.

Speaking at a Harris campaign event in Pennsylvania last week, Obama looked stunned by his predecessor’s ability to mobilize millions of Americans. “There is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anyone but himself,” Obama said. Donald Trump treats power as a means.

Donald Trump, even after two impeachments, a criminal conviction and his attempt to overthrow democracy to hang onto power, is once again running a presidential campaign with an even more extreme agenda.

Recent panicked tweets by Sen. Chris Murphy on X have alarmed many. Murphy said last week’s characterization by Trump of undocumented migrants as “rapists” and the “worst criminals in the world” portend “a dystopian country” with open-air prison camps and the rule of law suspended. “We cannot allow this. Democrat from Connecticut said his idea of America is not America. His tweet underlines Harris’s role for those who fear that Trump might return.