GUT PUNCH

It is unlikely that Trump will change his 'combative' mode of campaign as he targets Harris

-  RAYMOND E. VICKERY

DONALD TRUMP WAS all set to run against President Joe Biden. When momentum started to build for Biden to drop out, the Trump campaign moderated its fire, hoping Biden would stay in. But now that he has stepped aside and Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, what does it mean for the conduct of the Trump campaign?

Despite a near-death experience from a would-be assassin's bullet, Trump has already said that he will not be "nice" and has tried to hang the title "lying" on Harris just as he tried to attach "crooked" to Biden. Indeed, the chief effort of the Trump campaign will be to paint Harris in the same negative light as it painted Biden.

ECONOMIC AND IMMIGRATION ISSUES

The Trump economy was not the best in history, as Trump falsely claims. The Biden/Harris administration did come up with a bipartisan fix for the border-which Trump torpedoed to keep the issue alivebut facts will take a backseat in the campaign against Harris.

On the economy, Trump will not only try to build an image of Harris as a "socialist," but a "radical socialist". Her support of "Medicare for all" in 2020 will be offered as exhibit A in the campaign's "radical socialist" thrust. Exhibit B may very well be her previous opposition to fracking as opposed to Trump's "drill baby drill" slogan. According to the Trump campaign, Harris will now be responsible for inflation as a sort of "power behind the throne" who incited Biden to take what MAGA Republicans consider disastrous economic measures.