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Donald Trump accused Kamala Harris of running a “campaign of hate” during an event at his Mar-a-Lago club, following a rally in New York that had been marred by racist and crude comments. Trump’s aides expressed concern that the remarks could resonate negatively with voters in the final days of the presidential race.
Although the event was open to reporters, Trump took no questions—likely to avoid inquiries about the controversial rhetoric from his rally. Instead, he attempted to shift the narrative by claiming that Harris was fostering division. This move came ahead of a potentially damaging day for his campaign, as Harris was set to speak at a rally on the Ellipse in Washington, the same location where Trump held a rally just before the January 6 Capitol attack, linking him directly to the riot.
“Really a campaign of destruction but really, perhaps more than anything else, a campaign of hate – it’s a campaign of hate,” Trump said of Harris. “I said yesterday she’s a vessel; it’s a very big, powerful party with smart people, but it’s vicious and perhaps even trying to destroy our country.”
Trump also raised questions about Harris’s stance on immigration and gender issues, stating, “Who would want open borders where millions of people can flow in from prisons and from gangs – the worst gang members anywhere in the world? Who would want this for our country?” He added, “Who would want transgender operations all over the place?”
He dismissed comparisons of his rally to a Nazi gathering, asserting, “It was love in the room,” and did not face any challenges regarding the comments made by the first speaker at his six-hour rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, who made derogatory remarks about Puerto Rico and Black people.
Trump is expected to address any potential fallout later in the day at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has a significant Puerto Rican immigrant population—an essential constituency for his campaign.
For years, the Trump campaign has operated under the principle of never apologising, often ignoring any damage and counterattacking. However, Trump’s team has recognised that the comments about Puerto Rico could pose a problem.
The backlash from Puerto Rican celebrities and the island’s Republican party chair has been swift and severe, prompting the Trump campaign to issue a statement denouncing the remarks.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” said senior Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez.
The rally was marked by racist and crude comments, starting with the first speaker, Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the Kill Tony podcast. “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” Hinchcliffe stated. He also made inappropriate comments about Latinos.
Harris and the Democrats have seized upon this moment as an opportunity to highlight Trump’s divisiveness. “Trump fans the fuel of hate and division, and that’s why people are exhausted with him,” Harris remarked, while groups aligned with her campaign have already begun airing television ads featuring the remarks.
Despite the controversy, Trump’s team privately expressed confidence that the situation would blow over quickly, given the frenetic pace of the news cycle with less than a week until the November election. Some team members even suggested that the rally might inadvertently starve Harris of media attention, which they view as free advertising, and occurred close enough to Election Day that it could be forgotten.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
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