Former President Trump campaigned in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, criticizing Vice President Harris’ appearance as Republican allies pressured him to focus on policy differences with his political opponents.
“I’m a lot more handsome than she is,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “I’m a lot more handsome than Kamala.”
The former president made the comments while referring to the recent Time magazine cover featuring Harris.
“Time magazine doesn’t have a photo of her. They have an incredible artist drawing her,” he said. “They took a bunch of photos and they didn’t work, so they hired a sketch artist.”
Trump’s attack was one of many aimed at Harris and her Democratic allies at Saturday’s rally.
“What happened with Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against somebody else,” Trump said. “I said, who are you running against Harris? I said, ‘Who the hell is Harris?'”
In a statement after the rally, Harris’ campaign said, “Another rally, the same old show.”
“Donald Trump has resorted to lies, name-calling and deranged rants because he can’t accept his dangerous Project 2025 policies that would raise taxes on working families by $3,900, repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away our freedoms,” campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said.
Trump sharply criticized Pennsylvania Democrats, including Governor Josh Shapiro (Democrat) and Senator Bob Casey (Democrat), who is seeking re-election.
The former president insisted that the Harris campaign did not choose Shapiro as his running mate “because he’s Jewish,” and repeated his criticism of Jewish Democratic voters.
Trump also slammed various broadcast news networks, including ABC News, which will host the presidential debate in September.
The former president’s comments come as many Republicans, including former adviser Kellyanne Conway, have called for him to avoid personal insults and focus on policy in his campaign speeches.
“President Trump’s winning formula is pretty clear,” Conway told Fox Business last week. “Few insults, more insight, policy contrast.”
But Trump has spoken policy throughout the rally, touching on immigration, crime and foreign policy, and he also repeatedly criticized the economic plan that Harris unveiled on Friday.
“After creating catastrophic inflation, Comrade Camara has announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls,” Trump said, calling it the “Maduro plan” of the “old Soviet Union.”
Trump also invited a Venezuelan supporter onto the stage to reminisce about former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s rise to power.
The former president also criticized Harris’ stance on fracking, an energy and environmental issue very familiar to Pennsylvania voters.
“You know she’s against the whole energy issue that you’re moving forward with, which is absolutely the most important thing from an economic standpoint, from a jobs standpoint,” Trump said.
“She has vowed to ban fracking,” he said, “and because Pennsylvania desperately needs energy and jobs, fracking will continue for a long time to come.”
Pennsylvania is likely to play a decisive role in the November election, with its 19 electoral votes at stake. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 but narrowly lost it to Biden in 2020. The latest Hill/Decision Desk average gives Harris a 0.8 percentage point lead over Trump.
