Why Trump is confident he will defeat Harris

The Trump campaign believes that Ms. Harris is not much different from President Biden and would be easily defeated by him in the race for the White House.

Donald Trump said on July 21 that he would easily defeat Vice President Kamala Harris if she became the Democratic candidate to replace President Joe Biden in the White House race.

Ms. Harris would be "a more beatable opponent than Mr. Biden," the former US president emphasized.

Former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 9 in Doral, Florida. Photo: AFP

Biden, 81, announced that he would end his campaign "in the best interest of the country" and focus on serving as President for the remainder of his term. In a post on X to Democratic Party members later, Biden announced that he would support Vice President Harris, 59, as the party's nominee in this year's White House race.

According to several sources familiar with the matter, the former President Trump’s campaign has been planning for the past few weeks for Ms. Harris to become the Democratic nominee, facing him in the race for the White House. They are confident that Ms. Harris’s two weaknesses, immigration and cost of living, are strengths that can bring Mr. Trump victory in the election.

They signaled that they would “tie” Ms. Harris to President Biden’s immigration policies, which Republicans say are causing millions of people to illegally cross the southern border into the U.S. Mr. Trump has said that the wave of immigrants is “invading” the U.S. and “poisoning the American bloodline.”

The second prong of the attack will continue to focus on the economy. Polls consistently show that most Americans are unhappy with rising fuel and food costs and interest rates that make it harder to buy a home.

“She is a co-lead for the Biden vision,” said one adviser to former President Trump. “If they want to move to Biden 2.0 and Kamala is at the top of the list, we’re fine.”

The Make America Great Again (MAGA) organization, Mr Trump's super PAC, said it had pulled attack ads against President Biden scheduled to air on television in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and replaced them with ads against Vice President Harris.

The 30-second ad accuses Ms. Harris of hiding Mr. Biden's mental health, while also trying to link the negative aspects of the Biden administration to Vice President Harris.

"Kamala knew Joe couldn't do it, so she did it. Look at what she did: A wave of refugees, hyperinflation, the death of the American dream," the ad's narrator says.

Democrats have yet to determine their next steps, and there is no guarantee that Vice President Harris will become the party's nominee, despite her endorsement by President Biden.

Political strategists say Ms. Harris's election as the Democratic nominee would change the White House race in ways that are difficult to predict.

Ms. Harris, a woman of color and Asian descent, would create a completely new dynamic for the election against Mr. Trump, highlighting the particularly clear cultural and social differences between the two. The United States has never had a female president in its history.

Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist, said Harris could run “a more dynamic campaign by tapping into the excitement among young voters and people of color,” both important voting blocs for Democrats that President Biden has struggled to win over.

Mollineau assessed that as a former prosecutor, California attorney general and former US senator, Ms. Harris could use "her years of litigation experience to effectively attack Mr. Trump in the court of public opinion."

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 29. Photo: AFP

Chip Felkel, a Republican strategist, warned that it would be a mistake for the Trump campaign to portray Ms. Harris as just an alternative version of President Biden.

Recent polls show that Ms. Harris is well-placed to compete with Mr. Trump. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from July 15 to 16 of a hypothetical matchup between the two, the vice president and the former president were tied at 44%.

However, Republican political consultant Jeanette Hoffman is confident that despite the differences Vice President Harris could bring, her close relationship with President Biden would be a major drag on the campaign.

"Ms. Harris does not represent the change that America is looking for," he stressed.

MAGA super PAC CEO Taylor Budowich said his team has been researching a number of potential Democratic candidates in recent weeks.

"MAGA is prepared for any outcome of a Democratic Party that brings only chaos and failure," he said.

Trump on July 20 revealed some of the arguments that the Republican Party will make when President Biden withdraws. He called the Democratic Party "enemies of democracy".

While President Biden and Democrats have long argued that another Trump administration would threaten American democracy, the former president may now use the situation to deflect those criticisms.

Some people close to Trump and Republicans familiar with his campaign say they are confident in his chances of defeating Harris.

Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Trump, told Politico on July 18 that they "love" the scenario of Ms. Harris winning the Democratic nomination.

LaCivita called Vice President Harris a "manipulator" for saying publicly that President Biden was "fine and in great shape." "That's her problem," LaCivita stressed.