Final Countdown: Ex-President’s Personal Attacks on Harris Heat Up! 

Donald Trump. Credit | The New York Times
Donald Trump. Credit | The New York Times

United States: With only two weeks left in a highly competitive presidential contest, the prominent candidate on Tuesday not only continued his barrage of hostile comments about Vice President Kamala Harris but also made some rather crass personal remarks at two rallies. 

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The escalation resembled dynamics from his 2016 and 2020 campaigns when Trump cranked up the bitter, aggressive, and often unhinged personality attacks against his adversaries in the final phase of a presidential election campaign. 

He once peddled unsubstantiated stories of drug use by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and a then-presidential candidate, Joseph R. Biden Jr, in 2020. 

The onslaught echoed a pattern from his 2016 and 2020 campaigns when Mr. Trump ramped up his often-wild personal barbs against his opponents as Election Day drew near. He accused Hillary Clinton in 2016 and then-candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020 of drug use without a shred of evidence, New York Times reported. 

Donald Trump. Credit | The New York Times
Donald Trump. Credit | The New York Times

Allies urge Trump to tone down 

Still, given that Mr. Trump is trailing and analysts expect less than decisive wins in swing states, people close to the former president have been insisting for months that he tone down his personal attacks against Ms. Harris personally and focus on issues instead. 

Some of them have argued that Mr. Trump may endanger his chances of winning the support of other voters who may be open to his political persuasion but may be put off by his crass language. 

All indications were that Mr. Trump was not going to follow theirs and, in fact, has continued to increase the number of times and the level of insults, including the use of obscene language to refer to Ms. Harris on Saturday. 

While Tuesday’s insults did not cuss, it featured a number of jabs that referred to the vice president of the United States as an animal and accused her of being an addict in more ways than one. 

While Mr. Trump had been railing against Ms. Harris for months, his language grew most vulgar in the latter years, especially behind closed doors. 

But over time, as he has gotten more defensive over her relative financial advantage and as he has been unable to make any single line of criticism of her ring of common sense to most voters, he has relied on all sorts of personal attacks of a wildly false nature as a way of undercutting her support, New York Times reported. 

In a speech at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., they continued for two hours; Mr. Trump called Ms. Harris a “low IQ individual” and at one point said she “froze like a dog” when her teleprompter froze. 

He even mentioned that she was not “mentally or physically able” to be president, as he himself stumbled at times to recall his own words during his speech.