Donald Trump Says He’s ‘Entitled’ to Personally Attack Kamala Harris

Former President Donald Trump said that he’s “entitled” to personally attack Vice President Kamala Harris because he doesn’t “have a lot of respect for her.”
Speaking with reporters at a news conference at his golf club at Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday afternoon, Trump was asked if he believed his “strategy” of attacking his political opponents was working in his reelection campaign.
“I’m very angry at her, that she weaponized the justice system against me and other people,” the former president responded.
“I think I am entitled to personal attacks,” Trump added. “I don’t have a lot of respect for [Harris]. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president.”
“Whether the personal attacks are good, bad—I mean, she certainly attacks me personally,” the former president continued. “She actually called me ‘weird’ … it was just a sound bite. And she called JD [Vance] and I ‘weird.’ He’s not weird.”
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was one of the first Democrats who started describing Republicans’ policies as “weird” during an interview with MSBNC in late July. Trump said Thursday that Walz has “had a terrible career” and called him “a weird guy,” adding that Harris was “weird in her policy.”
Trump has built a reputation for publicly attacking his opponents. Since Harris entered the 2024 race, the former president has described her as a “radical liberal” and has created a variety of nicknames for the Democratic presidential nominee: “Kamabla,” “Lyin’ Kamala,” and “Laffin Kamala.”
Some Republicans have raised concerns over the impact of Trump’s rhetoric, particularly after he questioned Harris’ racial identity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference earlier this month, during which Trump said that Harris had only recently “became a Black person.”
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, and is the first Black, Asian American and woman to hold the office of vice president.
After Trump’s comments at the NABJ forum, GOP Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski questioned if Trump’s team knew “how to handle the campaign.” Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis also said at the time that Republicans were not “gaining ground” when they choose to comment on “anything but this Biden administration’s failed economy, failed border, failed national security.”
Trump’s past comments have also landed him in court. During his hush money trial in New York, which resulted in Trump getting convicted of 34 felony charges, a limited gag order was placed on the former president after he verbally attacked the presiding judge’s daughter. Trump was accused of breaking the order on several occasions throughout trial, and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine each time he was found in violation.
Trump told reporters on Thursday while answering questions about his attacks on Harris that “people don’t know who she is yet.”
“Nobody knows who I’m talking about,” the former president said, adding that Harris is a “radical left socialist” who is “going to destroy our country.”
“And when they find out, I think you’re going to see something,” he added.
Trump also suggested that he was allowed to attack his opponents, pointing to his list of legal battles. He has three pending criminal indictments (the Florida classified documents case was dismissed but still awaits appeal) against him while running for reelection, although he has claimed that all charges are politically motivated and a form of “election interference.”
“Some people say, ‘Oh, why don’t you be nice?’ But they’re not nice to me,” Trump said Thursday. “They want to put me in prison, you know. Just so you understand, you know, they tell me I should be nice. They want to put me in prison.”
Harris’ campaign released a statement shortly after Trump wrapped up his news release, saying, “We aren’t sure what we just watched and neither is America.”
“The American people cannot trust a word that Donald Trump says, but they can trust Vice President Kamala Harris, who has spent her life taking on fraudsters, cheaters, and criminals like Donald Trump to make our country safer and lower costs for the middle class,” Harris spokesperson James Singer added.
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod also criticized Trump’s demeanor during his news conference Thursday, writing to X, formerly Twitter, that the former president “seems like a rattled old boxer, I’m trapped in the corner by a younger, agile fighter, and flailing wildly.”
Trump’s campaign mocked Harris for not holding a news conference since entering the 2024 race.
“Hi @KamalaHarris. This is what is known as a press conference,” X account Trump War Room posted early into the former president’s event. “Believe it or not, it’s not a very difficult thing to do. You should try it sometime.”
Newsweek reached out to Harris’ campaign for additional comment on Thursday.
Update 08/15/24, 6:50 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.